The  Next  Step 

Toward 
Real  Democracy 


UC-NRLF 


EMILO.  10RGENSEN 

CY-2c,  U.  S.  >  ivy,  1918- v"?; 
Secretary  o/  the  CTh^-af^-  Si.  \glei*.<  Club 


Publi^f-.ed  by 

THE  CHICAGO  SINGLET  AX  CUiB 

1440  American  Bond  and  Mortgage  Building 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Price,  Paper   Coi't-r  $     ~j 
Cloth  Loi'cr          i   y 


GIFT  ©F 


The  Next  Step 

Toward 
Real  Democracy 


One  Hundred  Reasons  WHy  America 
SKould  AbolisH,  as  Speedily  as  Possible, 
All  Taxation  upon  the  Fruits  of  Industiy, 
and  Raise  tne  Public  Revenue  by  a 
Single  Tax  on  Land  Values  Only 


By 

EMIL  O..  TORGENSEN 

(Y-2c,  U.'S.  Navy,  1918-19) 
Secretary  of  the  Chicago  Singletax  Club 


Published  by 

THE  CHICAGO  SINGLETAX  CLUB 

1440  American  Bond  and  Mortgage  Building 

.CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Price,  Cloth  Cover  $1.25 
Pa^er  Cover      .75 


COPYRIGHT,    1920 

BY 
EMIL  O.  JORGENSEN 


To 

that  great, 

patriotic  and  powerful 
body  of  men — the  ex-Soldiers,  -Sail- 
ors and  -Marines  of  America — in 
whose  hands,  more  than  in 
any    one    else's,    the 
destiny  of  our 
nation   lies, 
this 
book 

is 

respectfully 
dedicated. 


T 


4331 1>7 


iii 


"We  held  these  truths  to  be  self-evident:  That 
all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  en- 
dowed by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.  That  to  secure  these 
rights,  governments  are  instituted  among  men, 
deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed;  that  whenever  any  form  of  gov- 
ernment becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is 
the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it." — 
Declaration  of  Independence. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

I  desire  to  take  this  opportunity  to  express 
my  sincere  gratitude  to  the  many  friends  who 
have  contributed  in  any  way  toward  making 
this  little  book  what  it  is.  Particularly  do  I 
wish  to  record  my  deep  obligation  to  my 
brothers,  Oscar  and  Edwin,  for  their  unselfish 
support  and  sacrifice,  without  which  this  work 
could  doubtless  not  have  been  completed;  to 
my  brother  John  for  kindly  favors  rendered  in 
moments  of  difficulty;  to  Mr.  Henry  L.  T. 
Tideman,  Mr.  Hugh  Reid,  Mr.  Otto  Cullman,  and 
Mr.  Luther  S.  Dickey  of  Chicago,  for  substan- 
tial assistance  in  preparing  the  manuscript; 
and  to  Mr.  John  Z.  White,  the  well-known 
Single  Tax  lecturer,  for  examination  of  the 
proof  sheets  and  for  much  valuable  criticism 
and  advice. 

Finally,  I  can  not  refrain  at  this  time 
from  acknowledging  my  great  indebtedness  to 
Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  now  Assistant  Secretary  of 
Labor,  Washington,  D.  C.,  who,  because  of  his 
kindly  encouragement  and  personal  guidance 
many  years  ago,  did  so  much  to  lead  me  into 
the  paths  of  economic  truth. 

THE  AUTHOR 
Chicago,  July,  1920. 


"Every  program,  every  measure  in  every  pro- 
gram, must  be  tested  by  this  question,  and  this 
question  only:  <IS  IT  JUST,  IS  IT  FOR  THE 
BENEFIT  OF  THE  AVERAGE  MAN,  WITHOUT 
INFLUENCE  OR  PRIVILEGE;  DOES  IT  EM- 
BODY IN  REAL  FACT  THE  HIGHEST  CON- 
CEPTION OF  SOCIAL  JUSTICE  AND  OF  RIGHT 
DEALING,  WITHOUT  RESPECT  TO  PERSON 
OR  CLASS  OR  PARTICULAR  INTEREST?' » 

— President  Wilson. 


"Try  our  remedy  [the  Single  Tax]  by  any 
test.  The  test  of  Justice,  the  test  of  expediency. 
Try  it  by  any  dictum  of  political  economy,  by 
any  maxim  of  good  morals,  by  any  maxim  of 
good  government.  It  will  stand  every  test." 

— Henry  George. 


vi 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

The  Single  Tax — What  It  Is  and  Why 
It  Should  Be  Adopted-. 3 

PART  I 

^V    It  is  Just 4 

^2,     It  is  Sound 5 

>   3.     It    is    Simple 6 

y£  It  is  Adequate  to  the  Needs  of  Govern- 
ment   , 7 

V^5.  It  is  the  Only  Tax  Reform  that  Guar- 
antees the  Right  of  Private  Prop- 
erty    8 

6.     It   is   the   Only  Tax   Reform   that   is   in 

Pull  Accord  With  the  Moral  Law___     10 
t.     It  is  Practicable 12 


V.. 


^. 
^14, 

Vl5. 


PART  II 


It  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  System  that 
Does  Not  Discourage  Production  and 
Encourage  Idleness,  but  Which  Dis- 
courages Idleness  and  Encourages 
Production  13 

It  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  Syrtem  that  is 
Not  Complex  and  Costly,  but  Simple 
and  Inexpensive 15 

10.  It  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  System  that  Is 

Not  Injurious  to  the  Public  Morals, 
but  that  Is  Practically  Free  from 
All  Temptation  to  Fraud  and  Per- 
jury    15 

11.  It    Will    Give    Us    a    Tax    System    that 

Does  Not  Fall  Upon  Individuals  in 
Proportion  to  Their  "Ability  to 
Pay,"  but  in  Proportion  to  the 
"Benefits  Received"  from  the  Gov- 
ernment   17 

12.  It    Will    Give    Us    a    Tax    System    that 

Does  Not  Molest  "Earned"  Incomes, 
but  Which  Taxes  Only  Those  that 
are  "Unearned" 18 


PART   III 

It   Will   Break    the   Monopoly   of   Agri- 
cultural Land 20 

It    Will    Break    the   Monopoly    of   Coal, 
Oil   and    Mineral    Land 21 

It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Timber 
Land    23 

It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Water- 
power  Land 25 

x/17.     It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Urban 

Land    26 

1/1&.  It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Rail- 
road Rights-of-Way,  Pipe  Lines, 
Terminals,  Water  Fronts,  Stock 
Yards,  and  Public  Franchises 27 

PART    IT 

19.  It  Will  Destroy  the  Injurious  Power  of 

the  Trusts 28 

20.  It  Will  Free  Competition  in  Industry..     31 

21.  It     Will    Eliminate     Multi-Millionaires 

and  Sweep  Away  Overgrown  For- 
tunes    31 

is  22.     It   Will   Insure  a   Just   Distribution   of 

Wealth    33 

23.  It   Will  Lower  the  Cost   of  Living 36 

24.  It  Will  Reduce  the  Rent  of  Land 37 

25.  It  Will  Stop  the  Traffic  in  Speculative 

Land  Values  and  Tremendously  In- 
crease the  Demand  for  the  Products 
of  Labor 38 

26.  It    Will    Settle   for   All   Time   the    Per- 

plexing Problem   of  Markets 40 

vii 


Chapter  Page 

PART  V 

V"  27.     It     Will     Eliminate     Involuntary     Un- 

/  employment     41 

28.     It  Will  Raise  the  True  Wages  of  Labor     41 

29.  It    Will    Dispense    With    the    Need    of 

Labor  Organizations;  Abolish 
Strikes,  Lockouts,  Boycotts,  Riots, 
and  Massacres  in  Industry 42 

30.  It  Will  Check  the  Growth  of  Syndical- 

ism, Bolshevism,  Communism,  An- 
archism, and  Similar  -Revolutionary 
Movements  44 

31.  It    Will    Clear    the    Channels    of    the 

Monetary   System    44 

32.  It  Will  Prevent  Panics   and  Industrial 

Depressions 45 

33.  It  Will  Remedy  the  Tariff  Problem  ___     47 

34.  It  Will  Remedy  the  Immigration  Prob- 

lem       47 

35.  It     Will     Stimulate     Enormously      the 

Production    of   Wealth    47 

PART   VI 
V36,     It  Will  Abolish  Involuntary  Poverty..     49 

37.  It  Will  Solve  the  Child  Labor  Problem     51 

38.  It     Will     Stop      the      Exploitation      of 

Female   Labor    51 

39.  It  Will  Dispose  of  the  Illiteracy  Ques- 

tion         52 

40.  It  Will  Diminish  Crime  and  Wipe  Out 

Commercialized    Vice    52 

41.  It  Will  Promote  Sobriety 53 

42.  It     Will     Decrease     the     Desertion     of 

Wives  and  Infants 54 

43.  It  Will  Check  the  Increase  of  Insanity  54 

44.  It  Will  Stop  Overwork 55 

45.  It  Will  Improve  Sanitation 55 

46.  It  Will  Reduce  to  a  Minimum  Sickness 

and    Disease    56 

47.  It  Will  Encourage  Marriage  and  Check 

the    Divorce    Evil    56 

48.  It  Will  Lower  the  Death  Rate 5£ 

PART  VII 

49.  It    Will    Solve    the    Tenement    Housing 

Problem    58 

50.  It  Will  Encourage  Municipal  Improve- 

ment         60 

51.  It    Will    Reduce    the    Cost    of    Tax   De- 

partments         60 

52.  It   Will   Reduce   the   Cost    of   Fire   De- 

partments         61 

53.  It  Will  Reduce  the  Cost  of  Police  De- 

partments         62 

54.  It    Will    Reduce    the    Cost    of    Public 

Health    Departments   62 

55.  It    Will     Reduce     the    Cost    of    Public 

Charity    Departments    63 

56.  It  Will  Diminish  the  Expense  of  Public 

Parks,  Playgrounds,  Zoological  Gar- 
dens, Schools,  Libraries,  Bridges, 
Courthouses,  Post  Offices,  Etc. 63 

57.  It  Will  Diminish  the  Expense  of  Lay- 

ing Pavements,  Sidewalks,  Conduits, 
Sewers,  Water  and  Gas  Mains,  Car 
Lines,  Etc.  64 

58.  It  Will  Lower  the  Cost  of  Freight  and 

Passenger    Transportation    65 

59.  It    Will   Lower   the   Expense   of   Build- 

ing   Homes    66 

60.  It   Will   Lower   the   Expense   of   Erect- 

ing Factories,  Mills,  Plants,  and 
Office  Buildings 67 

61.  It    Will    Lower    the    Expense    of    Con- 

structing Churches,  Hospitals  and 
Similar  Institutions  68 

viii 


Chapter  Page 

62.  It  Will  Disintegrate  the  Slums 68 

63.  It    Will    Facilitate    the    "Back    to    the 

Land"    Movement    69 

64.  It    Will     Increase    the     Taxes     in    the 

Richer  Districts  of  Cities 70 

65.  It    Will    Decrease    the    Taxes    in     the 

Poorer  Districts  of  Cities 71 

PART  VIII 

66.  It  Will  Break  Up  Big  Landed  Estates 

and  Speculative  Holdings  in  the 
Farming  Communities  72 

67.  It    Will   Solve   the    Farm   Tenancy   and 

Farm    Mortgage    Problems    75 

68.  It   Will    Enlarge    the   Farmer's   Market 

and  Give  Him  a  Better  Price  for  His 
Produce  77 

69.  It  Will  Increase  the  Agricultural  Pro- 

duction         78 

70.  It    Will    Improve     the    Conditions     for 

Rural   Co-operation    81 

71.  It  Will  Reduce  the  Price  of  Practically 

Everything   the  Farmers  Buy 82 

72.  It    Will    Lower    the    Farmers'    Federal 

Taxes     83 

73.  It     Will     Lower     the     Farmers'     State 

Taxes     84 

74.  It     Will     Lower     the     Farmers'     Local 

Taxes     86 

75.  It    Will    Reduce    the    Cost    of    County 

Government     88 

76.  It     Will     Reduce     the     Cost     of     Farm 

Transportation 89 

77.  It    Will    Solve    the    Rural    School    and 

Church    Problems    90 

78.  It   Will    Elevate   the   Agricultural   Life     92 

79.  It    Will    Halt     the    Movement     to     the 

Cities     93 

PART   IX 

80.  It     Will     Remove     the     Opposition     to 

Foreign  Immigration — the  First 
Cause  of  International  Irritation 93 

81.  It     Will     Remove     the     Opposition     to 

Foreign    Imports — the    Second    Cause 

of   International   Irritation 94 

82.  It    Will    Remove    the    General    Hunger 

for  Foreign  Territory — the  Third 
Cause  of  International  Irritation 95 

83.  It    Will    Remove    the    General    Hunger 

for  Foreign  Markets — the  Fourth 
Cause  of  International  Irritation 96 

84.  It     Will,     When     Applied     Universally, 

Crush  Militarism,  and  Disband 
Armies  and  Navies  Off 

85.  It     Will,     When     Applied     Universally, 

Abolish    War    98 

PART  X 

86.  It     Will     Force     Into     Productive     In- 

dustry Hundreds  of  Thousands  of 
Useless  Real  Estate  Speculators, 
Monopolists,  Landlords,  and  Similar 
Parasites  on  Capital  and  Labor 99 

87.  It    Will    Release    for    Productive    Pur- 

poses Scores  of  Thousands  of  Tax 
Assessors,  Tax  Collectors,  Detec- 
tives, Policemen,  Jail  Keepers, 
Social  Workers,  Charity  Dispensers, 
and  Laborers  Engaged  in  Building 
and  Keeping  in  Repair  Prisons  and 
Reformatories',  Almshouses,  Hos- 
pitals, and  Asylums  for  the  Sick  and 
Insane  100 

ix 


Chapter  Page 

88.  It    Will    Release    for    Productive    Pur- 

poses Untold  Numbers  of  Doctors, 
Lawyers,  Judges  and  Jurymen 100 

89.  It    Will    Release    for    Productive    Pur- 

poses Untold  Numbers  of  Soldiers, 
Sailors,  Ship  Builders,  Mechanics 
and  Laborers  Employed  in  Military 
Establishments,  and  in  the  Upkeep 
and  Manufacture  of  Munitions  of 
War  101 

90.  It  Will   Reduce  All  Governmental  Ex- 

penses— Federal    and    State    as    Well 

as  County  and  Municipal 102 

PART    XI 

91.  It   Will   Conserve   the    Fertility   of   the 

Soil     104 

92.  It     Will     Conserve     the     Forests     and 

Minimize  the  Danger  from  Flood, 
Fire,  and  Soil  Erosion 106 

93.  It    Will    Conserve    the    Nation's    Coal, 

Oil,    and   Mineral  Resources 107 

94.  It      Will     Eliminate     the     Danger     of 

Ultimate  Overpopulation  of  the 
Earth  108 

95.  It       Will       Purify       Politics — National, 

State  and  Local 109 

96.  It  Will  Liberate  the  Press,  the  School, 

and   the    Church   from   the   Thraldom 

of    Special    Privilege    110 

97.  It    Will    Give    the    Fullest    and    Freest 

Opportunity  for  Co-operation  in  In- 
dustry   110 

98.  It    Will    Lessen    the    Consuming    Greed 

for   Wealth    111 

99.  It     Will     Remove     Class     Distinctions, 

Break  Down  Racial  Prejudices,  Ban- 
ish Fears  and  Hatreds  of  Foreign 
Peoples,  and  Scatter  Wide  the  Seeds 

of  Friendship  and  Good-Will 111 

100.     It    Will    Blaze    the    Pathway    for    the 

NEW    INDUSTRIAL   DAY 111 

PART  XII 
Progress  of  the  Single  Tax  Movement  113 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

"See  Through  It?" 4 

Comparison  of  Ground  Rent  and  Taxes  in 

New  York  City 7 

The  Single  Tax  Idea  at  Work 11 

Affably  Benign  to  Sterile  Monopoly  ....  13 
Sternly  Severe  to  Fruitful  Industry  ....  14 
People  Value  Belongs  to  the  People  ....  16 

The  Nature  of  Income 19 

Land  Monopoly  in  the  United  States  ...  20 
Land  Value — Who  Ought  to  Own  It?  ...  22 

Who  Owns  the  Lumber  Supply? 24 

Who  Controls  the  Water  Power? 26 

"Three-Fifths  of  the  Average  American  City 

Consists  of  Vacant  Ground" 27 

Who  Controls  the  Stockyards? 28 

Difference  Between  Land  and  Wealth  ...  29 

Unearned  vs.  Earned  Incomes 32 

The  Rise  of  Land  Values 34 

The  Distribution  of  Land  Values 35 

Taking  It  All 38 

The  True  Road  to  Higher  Wages 41 

The  Lord  Giveth  and  the  Landlord  Taketh 

Away 49 

The  Result 50 

Another  Holdup 57 

Land  Speculation  and  Charity 63 

The  Enormous  Waste  of  Cities 64 

This  Condition  Will  Exist  So  Long  as  This 

Condition  Lasts 66 

A  100%  American  Billboard 67 

A  Few  Acres  and  Liberty 69 

Where  City  Land  Values  Are 70 

Comparison  of  Present  Taxes  and  Single  Tax 

in  Washington,  D.  C 71 

Who  Owns  Our  Agricultural  Land?  ....  73 

The  Toll  of  Landlordism 76 

Whose  Country  Have  I  Been  Fighting  For?  .  76 
City  Land  Values  vs.  Farm  Land  Values  .  .  83 

The  Farmer  and  the  Single  Tax 85 

The  Land  Speculator  and  the  Single  Tax  .  .  86 
The  High  Cost  of  Land  Speculation  ....  90 
A  Non-Essential  Citizen 99 


xi 


What  It  Is— and  Why  It  Should  be  Adopted 

"Single  Tax"  is  the  name  given  to  the  reform 
proposed  in  1879  by  Henry  George  in  his  great 
work  "Progress  and  Poverty."  It  is  not,  as 
some  suppose,  a  tax  upon  bachelors.  Neither 
is  it  a  tax  upon  incomes,  or  inheritances,  or 
upon  the  things  that  bachelors — and  other  men 
— produce,  such  as  houses,  crops,  machinery, 
factories,  mills,  locomotives,  etc.  Things  like 


THE  SINGLE:  TAX 

By    Henry    George 

"We  propose  to  abolish  all  taxes  save  one 
single  tax  levied  on  the  value  of  land,  irre- 
spective of  the  value  of  the  improvements 
in  or  on  it. 

"What  we  propose  in  not  a  tax  on  real  es- 
tate, for  real  estate  includes  improvements. 
Nor  is  it  a  tax  on  land,  for  we  would  not  tax 
all  land,  but  only  land  having  a  value  irre- 
spective of  its  improvements,  and  would  tax 
that  in  proportion  to  that  value. 

"Our  plan  involves  the  imposition  of  no  new 
tax,  since  we  already  tax  land  values  in  tax- 
Ing  real  estate.  To  carry  it  out  we  have  only 
to  abolish  all  taxes  save  the  tax  on  real  es- 
tate, and  to  abolish  all  of  that  which  now 
falls  on  buildings  and  improvements,  leaving 
only  that  part  of  it  which  now  falls  on  the 
value  of  the  bare  land,  increasing  that  so  as 
to  take  as  nearly  as  may  be  the  whole  of  eco- 
nomic rent,  or  what  is  sometimes  styled  the 
'unearned  increment  of  land  values.'  " 


these,  will,  under  the  Single  Tax  system,  be 
exempt  from  all  taxation.  The  Single  Tax  is 
simply  one  tax — and  one  only — levied  upon 
land,  not  according  to  its  area,  but  according 
to  its  actual  "market"  or  "selling"  value.  And 
by  "land,"  of  course,  is  meant  the  earth  itself 
— in  other  words,  all  natural  opportunities, 
such  as  mineral,  timber,  and  agricultural 
ground,  waterpower  rights,  urban  lots,  rail- 
road rights-of-way,  and  public  franchises,  re- 
gardless of  any  improvements. 

Why  should  we  make  this  change  in  our  pres- 
ent revenue  system?  To  answer  this  question 
adequately  and  intelligently  is  the  aim  and 
purpose  of  this  book.  Following  are  one  hun- 
dred reasons  why  we  should,  not  only  for  our 
own  good,  but  for  the  good  of  the  whole  world, 
abolish,  as  speedily  as  possible,  all  taxation 
upon  the  products  of  human  industry  and  raise 
the  public  funds  by  a  single  tax  on  land  values 
only. 


1— It  Is  Just. 

The  justice  of  abolishing  all  taxation  upon 
the  fruits  of  human  enterprise  and  appropriat- 
ing for  the  benefit  of  government  the 
economic  rent  of  ground  lies  simply  in  this — 


SEE  THROUGH  IT  ? 


— Cartoon  by  J.  W.   Bengough. 

that  it  will  take  for  society  only  what  belongs 
to  society  and  leave  to  individuals  only  what 
belongs  to  individuals. 

"The  rental  value  of  natural  bounties  .  .  . 
is  clearly  by  the  law  of  justice  a  public  fund, 
not  merely  because  the  value  is  a  growth 
that  comes  to  the  natural  bounties  which  God 
gave  to  the  community  in  the  beginning,  but 
also,  and  much  more,  because  it  is  a  value 
produced  by  the  community  itself,  so  that  this 
rental  value  belongs  to  the  community  by 
that  best  of  titles,  namely  producing,  mak- 
ing, or  creating." — The  Rev.  Edward  Mc- 
Glynn  in  His  Doctrinal  Statement  to  the  Au- 
thorities of  the  Church  of  Rome,  Dec.,  1892. 

X  "There  are  certain  things  in  the  world 
which  are  not  the  product  of  man's  industry 
and  to  which,  therefore,  the  individual  man 
has  no  natural  right  .  .  .  Air,  light,  the 
ocean,  the  navigable  rivers,  come  under  this 
category.  So  do  the  land  and  its  contents. 
...  A  third  source  of  value  ...  is  the 
public  franchise.  .  .  .  This  right  is  a  crea- 
tion of  the  state;  the  value  inherent  in  this 
right  belongs  naturally  to  the  state." — Dr. 
Lyman  Abbott,  "The  Industrial  Problem," 
pp.  139,  140. 

"The  Single  Tax  simply  means  to  take,  in 
the  way  of  taxes,  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
community,  that  annual  rental  value  given  to 
land  because  of  its  situation,  by  the  commun- 
ity itself.  Where  is  the  injustice  in  this?" — 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Jr.,  Saratoga,  N.  Y., 
1890. 

"I  believe  that  the  principle  at  the  heart  of 
the  Single  Tax  agitation — that  the  fiscal  reve- 
nues should  be  derived  from  the  social  es- 


tatea  (the  regalia  principle  in  ultimate  ev- 
acuee), from  the  sources  to  which  the  justift- 
action  for  private  property  do  not  attach — la 
right  and  vastly  important.  The  renta  of 
mines,  forests,  water  fails,  franchisee,  town 
lota,  and  also,  If  practicable,  of  agricultural 
landa,  ahould  be  retained  aa  flacal  properties." 
— Prof.  H.  J.  Davenport,  in  "The  American 
Economic  Review,"  March,  1917. 

^  "A  tax  laid  on  toola  or  any  other  creation 
of  human  labor  violate*  a  right  of  property 
because  it  takes  from  the  man  who  has  cre- 
ated it,  part  of  the  thing  which  he  haa  made. 
A  tax  on  land  values,  however,  takea  from 
the  individuala  nothing  that  of  right  belongs  . 
to  them." — Professors  Scott  Nearing  and 
Frank  D.  Watson,  "Economics,"  p.  464. 

>("The  private  appropriation  of  land  valuea, 
or  the  private  appropriation  of  the  natural 
PUBLIC  revenues  .  .  .  is  a  direct  violation 
of  the  fundamental  principle  on  which  the  in- 
atitution  of  private  property  rests,  a  direct 
violation  of  the  great  ethical  or  social  com- 
mandment, 'Thou  shalt  not  steal.'  " — Lewis 
H.  Berens,  "Toward  the  Light,"  p.  143. 


2—  It   is    Sound. 

By  soundness  is  meant  unshiftability.  The 
Single  Tax  cannot  be  shifted.  It  stays  where 
it  is  put.  Taxes  imposed  upon  imports,  upon 
manufactures,  upon  money,  upon  buildings,  or 
machinery,  or  stocks  of  goods,  are  always 
passed  on  in  higher  prices  to  the  "ultimate  con- 
sumer." But  not  so  the  land  value  tax.  There 
is  no  way  in  which  the  landowner  can  pass 
this  tax  on,  no  way  in  which  he  can  raise  the 
rent.  For  unlike  taxes  upon  the  products  of 
industry  which  make  such  products  scarcer  and 
dearer,  taxes  upon  land  values  make  the  mar- 
ket supply  of  land  more  abundant  and  conse- 
quently cheaper.  TJie  price  of  land,  therefore. 
will  go  down  under  t^Q  «ingio 


"A  tax  on  commodities  is  always  trans- 
ferred to  the  consumer.  A  tax  on  rent  can 
not  be  transferred.  —  Prof.  ThorOld  Rogers, 
"Political  Economy,"  2nd  Edition,  p.  285. 

"A  tax  laid  upon  rent  Is  borne  solely  by 
the  owner  of  the  land."  —  Bascom,  "Treatise," 
p.  159. 

"A  land  tax  levied  in  proportion  to  the  rent 
of  land,  and  varying  with  every  variation  of 
rents  .  .  .  will  fall  wholly  on  the  land- 
lords." —  Walker,  "Political  Economy,"  p.  413. 

"A  tax  on  rents  fails  wholly  on  the  land- 
lord, There  are  no  means  by  which  he  cnn 
shift  the  burden  upon  any  one  else."  —  John 
Stuart  Mill,  "Principles  of  Political  Economy." 
Book  V,  Chap.  Ill,  Sec.  2. 

"A  tax  on  rent  would  affect  rent  only;  it 
would  fall  wholly  on  landlords,  and  could  not 


be  shifted.  The  landlord  could  not  raise  his 
rent." — Ricardo,  "Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy and  Taxation,"  Chap.  X,  Sec.  62. 

"Though  the  landlord  i*  in  all  cases  the 
real  contributor,  the  tax  is  commonly  ad- 
vanced by  the  tenant,  to  whom  the  landlord 
is  obliged  to  allow  it  in  payment  of  the  rent/' 

— Adam  Smith,  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  V, 
Chap.  II,  Part  II,  Art.  1. 

"A  tax  upon  ground  rent  can  not  be  shifted 
upon  the  tenant  by  increasing  the  rent." — C. 

B.    Fillebrown,    "A   B    C    of   Taxation,"    p.    31. 

"Not  only  the  entire  school  of  Ricardo  and 
Mill,  but  also  nine-tenths  or  more  of  other 
economic  writers  make  it  a  fundamental  doc- 
trine of  their  science  that  such  a  tax  never 
can  be  transferred  to  tenants." — Thomas  G. 
Shearman,  "Natural  Taxation,"  p.  129. 

"If  land  is  taxed  according  to  its  pure  rent, 
virtually  all  writers  since  Ricardo  agree  that 
the  tax  will  fall  wholly  on  the  landowner, 
and  that  it  can  not  be  shifted  to  any  other 
class,  whether  tenant-farmer  or  consumer."— 
E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  "Incidence  of  Taxation," 
p.  222. 

3— It  is   Simple. 

One  of  the  first  essentials  of  any  great  re- 
form is  that  it  be  simple  and  easy  of  execution. 
This  essential  the  Single  Tax  has.  The  govern- 
mental machinery  through  which  it  can  be  ap- 
plied already  exists.  No  additional  adminis- 
trative departments  or  duties  are  necessary. 
All  that  we  have  to  do  is  to  discontinue  such 
taxation  as  is  now  levied  upon  the  products  of 
industry,  and  increase  the  tax  upon  the  value 
of  natural  opportunities,  irrespective  of  im- 
provements, and  the  task  is  done. 

"There  are  some  methods  of  getting  access 
to  the  earth  which  are  easier  than  others. 
The  easiest,  perhaps,  that  has  been  contrived, 
is  by  means  of  taxation  of  land  values  and 
land  values  alone.  One  trouble  with  it  which 
makes  it  almost  impossible  to  achieve,  is 
that  it  it  so  simple  and  so  easy.  You  can  not 
get  people  to  do  anything  that  is  simple;  they 
want  it  complex  so  they  can  be  fooled." — 
Clarence  Darrow,  in  "Everyman,"  December, 
1916. 

"The  method  of  solving  the  land  problem 
has  been  elaborated  by  Henry  George  to  such 
a  degree  of  perfection  that  UNDER  THE  EX- 
ISTING STATE  ORGANIZATION  AND  COM- 
PULSORY TAXATION  it  is  impossible  to  in- 
vent any  other  better,  more  just,  practical, 
and  peaceful  solution." — Count  Leo  N.  Tol- 
stoy, in  "A  Great  Iniquity." 

"The  Single  Tax  will  wait,  I  fancy,  for 
years,  since  it  is  so  fundamental,  and  man- 
kind never  attacks  fundamental  problems 


6 


until  it  ha*i  exhausted  all  the  •uperflclal 
ones." — Brand  Whitlock,  Embassador  to  Bel- 
gium, "Forty  Years  of  It,"  p.  169. 

"Tin-  Single  Tax  method  of  securing  equal 
rlKhtH  to  land  avoids  the  objection*  which 
adhere  to  all  other  methods.  There  would  be 
no  avoidable  hardship,  no  sudden  and  pro- 
found change  In  Nocinl  relations,  no  Interfer- 
ence by  state  officials  with  the  allotment  and 
use  of  land,  and  no  power  to  fix  rents  arbi- 
trarily or  enforce  rackrents.  The  exaction  of 
the  rent  charge  would  compel  holders  to  make 
the  most  profitable  use  of  all  land  and  at  the 
same  time  there  would  arise  the  most  abso- 
lute security  of  property." — Max  Hirsch,  "De- 
mocracy Versus  Socialism,"  p.  382. 

4 — It  is  Adequate  to  the  Needs  of  Government. 

It  is  sometimes  questioned  whether  the  Sin- 
gle Tax  will  provide  sufficient  revenue  to  run 
government.  It  is  a  strange  questioning.  There 

COMPARISON  OF  GROUND  RENT  AND   TAXES 

IN   NEW  YORK   CITY 

(1911-1917) 

Gross  Ground  Rent 

Hew  York  City 

6  years  - 

$2,014,542,982 


Total  rent 

of  land 
collected  by 

landowners 

OVER  AND  ABOVE 

ALL  TAXES  - 


$1,469,439,445 


Total  Tax  Burden 
New  York  City 

6  years  - 
$932,162,298 


Total  personal 
and  improve- 
ment taxes  - 
$387,258,756 


Total 
land  value 

taxes  - 
1544,903,537 


Total 
rent  of  land 

taken  in 
taxation  - 


— Annual  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Taxes  and 
Assessments  of  the  City  of  New  York,   1917. 


is  no  reason  under  the  sun  why  the  capital  and 
labor  which  now  support  both  the  government 
and  the  monopolists  cannot  support  the  govern- 


ment  alone!  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  economic 
rent  of  the  earth  far  exceeds,  even  in  these 
post-bellum  days,  the  legitimate  expenses  of 
all  government — federal,  state,  county,  and 
municipal. 

"The  adequacy  of  land  values  to  meet  all 
public  expenses  Is  sometimes  questioned,  but 
not  by  those  who  give  due  weight  to  the 
enormous  land  values  in  cities,  towns,  and 
villages.  Be  that  as  it  may,  however,  the  in- 
dustry wli it'll  now  supports  both  the  govern- 
ment and  the  landowners  could  obviously  sup- 
port the  government  alone,  and  with  no  IN- 
CREASE of  load  over  the  present,  to  say  the 
least!" — Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson,  in  "Harper's 
Weekly,"  July,  1913. 
Hit 

"The  gross  ground   rent  of  the  land  of  the 

city  of  Boston  is,  by  careful  estimate,  not  less 
than  $50,000,000.  Of  this  amount  there  is  al- 
ready taken  in  taxation,  $10,000,000,  leaving 
to  the  landowners  of  today  a  net  ground  rent 
of  $40,000,000." — C.  B.  Fillebrown,  in  a  paper 
read  before  the  National  Tax  Association 
In  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  1907. 

"It  is  idle  to  waste  breath  arguing  that  a 
tax  on  land  values  only  would  not  meet  our 
public  expense  and  hence  we  do  not  want  the 
Single  Tax.  We  are  paying  what  should  be 
the  Single  Tax  now,  all  the  time,  in  every 
price  or  lease  value  of  a  piece  of  land.  We 
are  paying  the  Single  Tax  now  to  landlords. 
"What  we  want  is  to  pay  it  into  our  public 
treasuries  and  get  the  good  of  it." — Lona 
Ingham  Robinson,  in  "The  Black  Art  of  Our 
Land  Tenure,"  p.  14. 

"That  the  value  of  the  land  alone  would 
•nffice  to  provide  all  needed  public  revenues — 
municipal,  county,  state  and  national — there 
can  be  no  doubt." — Hon.  Warren  Worth 
Bailey,  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
January  24,  1917. 

"The  Committee  estimates  that  the  aggre- 
gate unearned  profits  of  land  speculators, 
owners  of  natural  resources  and  natural 
monopolies  is  approximately  six  and  a  half 
billion  dollars  this  year,  while  the  producers 
of  the  country  have  to  pay  nearly  two  and  a 
half  billion  dollars  in  taxes,  because  land- 
owners are  permitted  to  retain  most  of  the 
ground  rent." — Chairman  Frederic  C.  Leu- 
buscher  at  the  Conference  on  the  High  Cost 
of  Living,  Washington,  D.  C.,  July  30,  1917. 
See  "The  Public,"  of  August  3,  1917. 

5 — It  is  the  Only  Tax  Reform  that  Guarantees 
the  Eight  of  Private  Property. 

There  is  a  persistent  tendency  on  the  part 
of  many  good  people  to  associate  the  Single 
Tax  doctrine  with  "land  nationalization,"  and 
not  infrequently  with  Socialism,  Anarchism, 
and  Communism.  This  is  a  great  mistake. 
There  is  no  "public  ownership"  or  "nationallza- 

S 


tion  of  land"  involved;  no  meddling  with  exist- 
ing titles  to  ground  contemplated.  The  private 
use,  possession,  and  ownership  of  the  earth, 
and  the  perpetual  right  of  the  individual  to 
"sell,  bequeath,  and  devise"  it,  are  indispensa- 
ble conditions  to  the  survival  and  progress  of 
society,  and  these  conditions  the  Single  Tax 
will  not  disturb  in  any  manner.  In  truth,  they 
will  be  much  more  firmly  established  after  this 
reform  has  been  inaugurated  than  they  are 
now. 

"I  do  not  propose  .  •  •  to  confiscate  pri- 
vate property  in  land  .  .  .  What  I  propose 
...  to,  TO  APPROPRIATE  RENT  BY  TAX- 
ATION."— Henry  George,  "Progress  and  Pov- 
erty," Book  VIII,  Chap.  II. 

"A  tax  on  ground  rent  is  only  a  tax  on  the 
private  power  of  taxation,  and  must  not  be 
confused  with  the  theories  of  land  confisca- 
tion, socialism,  or  land-nationalization."— 

Schuyler  Arnold,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Review," 
Nov.-Dec.,    1914. 

"The  value  of  land  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  validity  of  its  title.  If  a  man  holds  title 
to  a  parcel  of  land  of  no  value,  he  is  never- 
theless a  landowner." — John  Z.  White,  in  "The 
Single  Tax  Review." 

••The  land  [under  the  Single  Tax]  would 
not  be  owned  In  common,  but  land  values 
would  be  enjoyed  in  common." — Eliza  Stowe 
Twitchell,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Review,"  Nov.- 
Dec,.  1916. 

"Call  it  what  you  please — state  ownership, 
state  landlordism,  ownership  in  common, 
communism,  nihilism,  anarchism,  or  anything 
else;  but  the  fact,  nevertheless,  remains  that, 
under  the  Just  and  righteous  land  system 
•which  we  are  trying  to  explain,  the  land  will 
continue  to  be  bought  and  sold  under  the 
same  form  of  paper  deeds,  precisely  as  it  is 
bought  and  sold  today." — Henry  F.  Ring,  in 
"The  Case  Plainly  Stated,"  p.  15. 

••What  does  the  Single  Tax  contemplate? 
Taking  from  a  man  that  which  is  his  own? 
On  the  contrary,  it  insists  on  absolute  respect 
for  such  possession,  which,  under  our  cus- 
toms and  laws  is  so  ruthlessly  disregarded. 
It  proposes  to  disturb  no  title  and  to  bring 
no  confusion  by  its  beneficent  arrangement." 
— William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Saratoga,  N.  Y., 
1890. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  not  land  nationalization. 
The  ownership  of  the  land  by  the  state  to  not 
contemplated."— Frederic  C.  Howe,  "Privilege 
and  Democracy  in  America,"  p.  269. 

"The  Single  Tax  would  leave  the  title  to 
the  land  with  the  present  owners  and  merely 
socialize  the  unearned  rental  values." — Prof. 
Walter  Rauschenbusch,  "Christianizing  the 
Social  Order,"  p.  423. 


"The  taxation  of  land  values  Is  really  no 
interference  with  security — it  only  means 
ti«ut  that  which  does  gain  by  the  rate* 
[taxes]  should  contribute  to  the  rates."— 

A.   J.   Balfour,   in  the  Free  Trade   Hall,  Man- 
chester, England,  November  17,   1909. 

'•I  do  not  think  that  anyone  would  suggest 
that  the  alterations  [in  taxation]  from  im- 
proved value  to  site  value  is  Socialism,  or  any 
extravagant  or  novel  proposition." — Lord 
Cecil  Robert,  England,  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons debate,  November,  1909. 

"Single  Tax  is  not  Socialism.  It  is  not 
Bolshevism.  It  is  not  anarchy.  It  is  not  con- 
fiscation. ...  Private  ownership  of  land 
will  not  be  abolished,  and  titles  will  not  be 
disturbed." — Harry  H.  Willock,  in  "Commerce 
and  Finance,"  July  23,  1919. 

"The  proposal  to  tax  land  values  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  labor  values  should  not  be  confused 
with  either  Socialism  or  Communism.  It  is 
individualism,  pure  and  simple.  It  secures  to 
the  individual  all  that  he  produces  as  an  in- 
dividual and  also  his  share  of  the  social  value 
that  he  helps  to  produce  as  a  member  of  the 
community.  It  involves  no  new  ideas  of 
property,  no  change  in  land  titles,  no  increase 
of  officials,  and  no  complication  of  accounts." 
—"The  Public,"  December  7,  1918. 

"The  Single  Tax  reform  would  work  injus- 
tice to  nobody.  The  old  homestead,  with  it» 
•acred  memory  of  the  joys  of  childhood, 
•would  still  descend  from  father  to  son.  The 
well-tilled  farm  would  still  pass  from  father 
to  children.  There  would  be  no  destruction 
of  title  deeds." — Benjamin  F.  Lindas,  in  "The 
Single  Tax  Review,"  May-June,  1917. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  not  land  nationalization. 
No  right  of  occupancy  or  improvement  or 
sale  or  devise  is  taken  from  the  owner;  noth- 
ing except  the  right  to  collect  natural  taxes 
from  other  people,  and  to  be  himself  ex- 
empt."— C.  B.  Fillebrown,  "A  B  C  of  Taxa- 
tion," p.  89. 

"The  adoption  of  natural  [single]  taxation 
would  secure  to  the  owner  of  every  product 
of  human  industry  and  skill  an  absolute  and 
indefeasible  title  to  such  property;  so  that  it 
could  not  be  taken  from  him,  even  for  taxes, 
without  full  compensation  for  its  market 
value;  a  title,  therefore,  far  superior  to  any 
which  can  now  be  held  by  any  human  being." 
— Thomas  G.  Shearman,  "Natural  Taxatkm," 
p.  222. 

I— It  is  the  Only  Tax  Reform  that  is  in  Full 
Accord  with  the  Moral  Law. 

"It  would  seem  as  if  Providence  had  des- 
tined the  land  to  serve  as  a  large  economical 
reservoir,  to  catch,  to  collect  and  preserve 
the  overflowing  streams  of  wealth  that  are 
constantly  escaping  from  the  gr^eat  public  in- 
dustrial works  that  are  always  going  on  in 
communities  that  are  progressive  and  pros- 

10 


perous." — Bishop  Thomas  Nulty,  in  his  lettei 
to  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  diocese  of 
Meath,  1881. 

"Our  present  social  system  stands  con- 
demned by  all  humane  men  and  women.  We 
must  make  an  end  of  It,  and  in  its  place 
adopt  either  Socialism  or  the  Single  Tax. 
There  is  no  other  alternative.  Let  UN  choose 
that  which  accords  best  with  the  natural 
law  of  human  liberty — the  Single  Tax." — 
Arthur  H.  Weller,  in  "The  Westminster  Re- 
view," November,  1908. 


THf  VALUE  WKICH 

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POPULATION  co*5 


THE  LAW  .  "THf  MflN  WHO  OVWJ 
7rt£  IAND  SHALL  OWN  THE  VPUIE 
NO  MATTER.  H6W  IT  CCMES" 


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Ccafc£CS3C-»  i-fc-T*" 
I     PUBLIC  \\ 

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THE  LAtV  (/KITOUGMTtt  8F>  THK 
MAH  WHO  OWNSTCEUKO  SWRLJL  ray 

s  VALUE  To  ITS  i.?.f. .TfBiV.  r«ii 


— Cartoon  by  J.  W.  Bengrough. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  absolutely  in  harmony 
with  natural  justice  as  between  man  and 
man;  it  accords  with  those  eternal  and  self- 
evident  principles  of  freedom  that  are  the 
foundation  of  our  American  society;  it  Is 
ideal;  it  is  forceful;  it  is  practical." — John 
Z.  White,  in  "The  Arena,"  April,  1906. 

"What  is  the  Single  Tax?  It  to  a  self- 
consistent,  truly  scientific  and  Christian  the- 
ory of  the  solution  of  some  of  the  most  vex- 
ing problems  of  the  civilization  of  today. 
That  the  truth  contained  in  this  theory 
would,  if  applied,  transform  the  political,  in- 
dustrial, social  and  religious  condition*  of 
today,  other  things  being  equal,  is  the  grow- 
ing conviction  of  thousands  of  intelligent 
men  throughout  the  world.  For  one,  I  be- 
lieve this  with  all  my  heart.  Not  only  so, 
but  on  the  other  side,  I  am  convinced  that 
society  cnn  not  be  permanently  improved 
morally  or  religiously  without  the  truth  con- 
tained in  the  theory  of  the  Single  Tax/' — 
S.  S.  Craig,  ia  "The  Arena,"  January,  1899. 

"There  is  very  little  reason  to  believe  that 
the  practical  injustice  to  individuals  that 
would  grow  out  of  the  adoption  of  the  Single 
Tax  theory  In  any  way  which  would  be  pos- 
sible in  America,  would  be  so  great  as  the 
injury  which  has  come  to  individuals 
through  the  use  of  steam  and  electricity, 
through  the  influence  of  labor  and  of  cap- 
ital, and  through  the  consequent  necessary 
changes  in  industrial  conditions  and  in  val- 
ues depending  on  those  conditions." — Dr.  Ly- 
man  Abbott,  in  "The  Rights  of  Man,"  p  142. 

11 


"The  Single  Tax  guards  the  liberty  of  the 
individual  and  the  rights  of  society.  It  rec- 
ognizes the  truth  in  individualism  and  the 
truth  in  co-operation.  ...  It  stands  for 
freedom  as  against  restriction.  It  believes  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  in 
natural  rights  and  makes  them  effective, 
while  it  sweeps  away  special  privileges  and 
vested  rights." — George  Sidney  Robbins,  in 
"The  Arena,"  April,  1895. 

"The  great  merit  of  the  Single  Tax  is  its 
adaptibility.  Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
conceive  of  a  religious  or  social  propaganda 
which  does  not  need  to  include  its  essential 
doctrine.  Especially  should  all  Christian  As- 
sociations, taking  their  name  from  the  great 
religious  and  social  reformer  of  Judea,  feel 
Interested  in  the  ethical  side  of  the  Single 
Tax,  which  embodies  the  essence  of  Chris- 
tianity."— William  Lloyd  Garrison,  in  "The 
Arena."  January  18,  1899. 

"There  is  in  the  Single  Tax,  or  natural 
taxation,  nothing  of  technical  socialism, 
which  means  the  assumption  by  society  of 
functions  that  are  primarily  individual  .  .  . 
There  is  in  natural  taxation  no  communism, 
if  by  communism  is  meant  the  compulsory 
pooling  of  the  products  of  human  labor. 
.  .  .  There  is  in  natural  taxation  no  taint 
of  the  anarchism  of  disorder.  It  is  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  ideal  anarchism  of  law,  so 
perfect,  self-adjusting,  self-operating,  that 
no  external  force  is  needed  to  carry  it  into 
execution." — C.  B.  Fillebrown,  in  "The 
Arena,"  January,  1899. 


7— It  is  Practicable.  t 

The  practicability  of  the  Single  Tax  may  be 
read  in  history.  Nowhere,  of  course,  has  the 
full  measure  been  applied,  but  in  many  parts 
of  the  earth  a  substantial  step  in  that  direc- 
tion has  been  made.  It  has,  for  example,  se- 
cured a  firm  foothold  in  New  Zealand,  in  Aus- 
tralia (Sidney,  a  city  of  700,000  population, 
now  draws  practically  all  its  revenue  from  land 
values  exclusively),  in  Kiao-Chau,  China,  in 
numerous  cities  in  Germany,  and  especially  in 
the  great  agricultural  provinces  of  western 
Canada.  And  wherever  the  principle  has  been 
most  extensively  applied,  there  it  has  given 
the  greatest  satisfaction.  [For  further  discus- 
sion of  this  topic  see  final  chapter.] 

"When  any  man  of  good  intelligence,  good 
conscience,,  a,  civic  mind,  and  the  courage  of 
them  all,  begins  investigating  the  Single  Tax, 
he  is  on  the  road  to  becoming  a  convert. 

"His  investigations  will  sooner  or  later 
bring  him  to  these  conclusions:  (1)  That  the 
Single  Tax  is  just;  (2)  that  the  Single  Tax  is 
the  most  efficient,  unescapable  and  easily  col- 
lected tax  that  can  be  devised;  (3)  that  the 
public  income  from  the  Single  Tax  will  be 

12 


•ufflcient  to  defray  the  expense  of  va*t  gov- 
ernment Improvement*  of  great  utility,  which 
can  not  be  attempted  under  the  prenent  »y«- 
tem  of  taxation;  and  (4)  that  the  Single  Tax 
will  bring  about  a  great  equalization  of  In- 
dustrial opportunity.'* — R.  Bedichek,  in  "The 
Public,"  June  28,  1912. 

PART  II 

8— It  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  System  that  Does 
Not  Discourage  Production  and  Encourage 
Idleness,  but  which  Discourages  Idleness 
and  Encourages  Production. 

One  of  the  worst  defects  in  our  present  sys- 
tem of  taxation  is  that  it  hinders  improvement. 
It  lessens  the  incentive  to  accumulate,  to  build, 
and  to  beautify.  The  more  a  man  does  to  ad- 
vance the  material  interests  not  only  of  him- 
self, but  of  the  whole  community,  the  more 
he  is  fined  for  doing  so.  Thus  he  who  puts  up 
a  two-story  house  is  taxed  more  than  he  who 
puts  up  only  a  one-story  house;  he  who  trans- 
forms an  old,  decayed,  unsanitary,  and  unsafe 
factory  building  into  a  modern,  safe,  and 
healthful  one,  is  taxed  more  than  he  who  lets 
the  old  one  stand;  he  who  plants  an  orchard, 
a  garden,  or  a  field,  is  taxed  more  than  he  who 
lets  his  land  lie  waste,  a  breeding  place  for 
mosquitoes,  pestiferous  weeds  and  insects,  or 
a  dumping  ground  for  junk  and  garbage. 

The  Single  Tax  will  reverse  the  order.     It 

THE    STRANGE    FISCAL    BEHAVIOR    OP 
UNCLE  SAM 


Affably   Benign   to    Sterile   Monopoly 


will  not  reward  the  slothful  and  punish  the 
thrifty,  but  will  reward  the  thrifty  and  punish 
the  slothful.  No  matter  how  enterprising  or 
industrious  an  individual  is,  no  matter  how 
much  he  produces,  or  repairs,  or  beautifies,  he 

13 


will  not  be  taxed  more  on  that  account;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  no  matter  how  Indolent  or 
unprogressive  a  man  may  show  himself,  no 
matter  how  little  he  does  to  improve  the  land 


Sternly   Severe  to   Fruitful  Industry 

— Courtesy  of  "The  Single  Tax  Review." 

he  lives  or  works  on,  he  will  not,  for  this 
reason,  be  rewarded  by  lower  taxation,  but 
will  have  to  pay  as  much  as  if  he  made  the 
finest  and  most  desirable  of  improvements. 

FIGURES     THAT     SPEAK     FOR     THEM- 
SELVES. 

A    Comparison    of    Building:    Operations    In 
Seattle,  Wash.    (pop.  1912,  265,000),  and   Vun- 
eolver,  B.  C.   (pop.  1012,  101,000.) 
SEATTLE. 

19O1 94,569,788      (Ijnpts.     taxed) 

19O2 6,325,108  "  « 

1903 6,495,781  «  « 

1904 7,808,120  «  « 

1005 6,704,784  «  « 

19O6 11,920,488  "  " 

1907 13,572,770  «  « 

1908 13,377,329  «  « 

1909 19,084,853  «  « 

1910 17,163,080  "  " 

1911 7,491,156  «  « 

1012 8,415,325  «  " 

VANCOUVER. 

1901 $       731,716    (50%    Impts.  Taxed) 

1902 883,607         «  «  « 

19O3 1,426,148         ««  "  « 

19O4 1,968^01         "  "  " 

1905 2,653,000         "  «  « 

1906 4,308,410     25%          "  " 

1907 5,632,744         «  «  « 

1908 5,950,893         «  «  « 

1909 7^58,565         «  «  « 

1910 13,150,365   Impts.   Exempted 

1911 17,652,642         "  « 

1912 19,288,332         «  " 

14 


9— It  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  System  that  Is  Not 
Complex  and  Costly  but  Simple  and  Inex- 
pensive, 

A  second  defect  In  our  present  system  of 
taxation  is  its  bewildering  complexity  and 
enormous  cost  of  collection.  At  all  times  of  the 
year  a  great  horde  of  officials  must  be  main- 
tained to  peer  and  pry  into  the  private  affairs 
of  the  people,  to  assess  goods  of  a  myriad  kinds 
and  of  unknown  quantities  and  values,  to  un- 
cover countless  numbers  of  frauds  and  evasions, 
and  to  bring  before  the  bar  of  justice  those 
who  either  ignorantly  or  intentionally  have 
rendered  false  returns.  In  1919  it  cost  the 
taxpayers  of  the  nation  $10,020,851  to  collect 
the  customs  taxes;  $20,149,911  to  collect  the  in- 
ternal revenue  taxes;  and  from  $25,000,000  to 
$40,000,000  to  collect  the  general  property 
and  other  taxes. 

See  how  much  more  economical  the  Single 
Tax  is.  There  will  be  no  customs  duties  under 
this  system,  and  no  internal  revenue  duties. 
From  $25,000,000  to  $35,000,000  will  thus  be 
saved  to  the  people  each  year.  But  this  is  not 
all.  Land  cannot  be  hidden  or  carried  off  like 
other  property;  its  value  can  readily  be 
ascertained,  and,  once  the  assessment  is  made, 
nothing  but  a  receiver  is  required  for  collec- 
tion. Thus  another  $15,000,000  or  $20,000,000, 
or  a  total  of  from  $40,000,000  to  $55,000,000  can 
easily  be  saved  annually  in  the  cost  of  the  en- 
tire tax  machinery. 

"The  Single  Tax  Is  a  simple  and  certain 
method  of  collecting  taxes  fairly.  The  land 
can  not  be  hidden,  and  Its  value  Is  either  -well 
known  by  every  citizen  of  the  neighborhood, 
or  can  easily  be  learned.  There  is  no  Inquisi- 
tion Into  the  private  affairs  of  citizens  and  no 
temptation  to  false  swearing  or  tax  dodging." 
— W.  S.  U'Ren  in  "The  Annals  of  the  Ameri- 
can Academy,"  March,  1915,  p.  225. 

"Another  advantage  of  the  Single  Tax  is 
Its  simplifying  effect  upon  the  mechanism 
of  taxation.  The  present  land  tax  -would  be 
retained,  but  the  Intricate  system  of  Internal 
revenue  and  tariff  collection  would  be  abol- 
ished, and  a  great  saving  in  the  collection 
of  taxes  thus  affected." — Professors  Burch 
and  Nearingr,  "Elements  of  Economics,"  p. 
339. 

lO^it  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  System  that  is  Not 
Injurious  to  the  Public  Morals,  but  that  is 
Practically  Free  From  All  Temptation  to 
Fraud  and  Perjury- 
It  is  estimated  that,  under  the  existing  tax 
regime,  and  as  a  result  of  indiscriminate  ly- 
ing, cheating,  dodging,  bribery,  false-swearing, 

15 


and  evasion  of  the  grossest  sort,  almost  four 
dollars'  worth  of  personal  property  escapes  in 
the  United  States  for  every  one  that  is  turned 
in  to  the  assessor.  This  frightful  dishonesty 


— Cartoon  by  J.  W.  Bengough. 

and  corruption  in  the  gathering  of  the  public 
funds  will  not  be  possible  under  the  Single 
Tax.  For  "land  lies  out  of  doors."  It  cannot 
be  hidden  nor  accidently  overlooked.  Its  value 
cannot  be  greatly  misapprehended  nor  mis- 
stated. Nor  is  its  under-appraisement  possible 
to  any  appreciable  extent  without  the  conniv- 
ance of  the  whole  community.  Land  values  of 
a  neighborhood  are  matters  of  common  knowl- 
edge. Any  intelligent  resident  can  justly  ap- 
praise them  and  every  other  intelligent  citi- 
zen can  fairly  test  the  appraisement. 

"Public  collection  of  land  values,  through 
taxation  .  .  .  would  give  us  a  tax  that  none 
could  dodge  or  shift — a  tax  that  could  be  as- 
sessed and  collected  with  a  minimum  of  ex- 
pense, without  inquisitorial  methods,  and 
with  at  least  a  reasonable  approach  to  fair- 
ness and  accuracy." — Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson,  in 
"Harper's  Weekly,"  July,  1913. 

"With  the  Single  Tax  in  force  and  ns«es»- 
ment  rolls  published  and  distributed  to  every 
taxpayer,  the  people  would  have  only  one 
.tax  to  watch;  it  being  all-important,  there 
would  be  every  reason  and  opportunity  for 
securing  fair  and  full  assessments." — Byron 
W.  Holt,  "Municipal  Affairs,"  June,  1899. 

"The  taxation  of  land  values  -will  produce 
more  revenue  than  we  need,  and  we  won't 
have  to  subject  our  citizens  to  the  ordeal  of 
the  seventh  degree,  or  put  them  in  a  position 
where  they  will  have  to  lie,  perjure  them- 
selves, and  send  their  souls  to  hell." — J.  J. 
Pastoriza,  Tax  Commissioner  of  Houston, 
Texas,  in  a  Letter  Addressed  to  Mr.  E.  W. 
Prescott,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  April  26,  1914. 

"The  Single  Tax  would  be  an  enormous 
improvement  over  the  existing  system,  or 
over  any  other  system  which  I  think  could 

16 


be  devised.  It  would  reduce  taxation  to  a 
basin  of  absolute  certainty  and  falrneM,  ren- 
dering evasion  impo.xiiible." — Charles  Francis 
Adams.  Cited  by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  in  his 
"Rights  of  Man,"  p.  140. 


11— It  Will  Give  Us  a  Tax  System  that  Does 
Not  Fall  Upon  Individuals  in  Proportion 
to  Their  "Ability  to  Pay,"  but  in  Propor- 
tion  to  the  "Benefits  Received"  from  the 
Government. 

The  old  principle  still  underlying  the  exist- 
ing scheme  of  taxation  is  that  each  citizen 
should  contribute  to  the  support  of  govern- 
ment according  to  his  "ability  to  pay."  But 
this  old  principle  is  not  merely  unjust  and 
immoral;  it  is  THE  MAIN  CAUSE  OF  THE 
GROWING  INEQUALITY  IN  THE  DISTRIBU- 
TION OF  WEALTH! 

The  community  has  no  more  right  to  make 
men  pay  for  community  benefits  according  to 
their  ability  than  merchants  have  to  make 
them  pay  for  goods  according  to  their  ability. 
Men  pay  for  their  groceries  and  their  cloth- 
ing according  to  what  they  get.  They  should 
pay  for  community  benefits  on  precisely  the 
same  plan. 

Only  if  it  were  found  impossible  to  ascertain 
what  benefits  an  individual  received,  would  it 
be  permissible  to  fall  back  on  the  clumsy  and 
unfair  principle  of  taxation  according  to 
ability.  "But,"  as  the  Rev.  S.  G.  Bland  has 
well  said,  "to  ascertain  what  benefits  any  man 
derives  from  living  in  a  certain  community  is 
not  impossible.  It  is  not  even  difficult.  He 
cannot  live  in  such  a  community  except  on  the 
land,  and  the  price  men  are  willing  to  pay 
for  land  represents  precisely  what  in  the  gen- 
eral judgment  are  the  advantages  which  that 
community  provides  for  that  location.  Every- 
thing is  taken  into  account  in  fixing  that 
value — police  and  fire  protection,  schools, 
churches,  roads,  sidewalks,  social  and  business 
opportunities.  The  price  a  man  is  willing  to 
pay  for  any  piece  of  land  apart  from  improve- 
ments is  his  own  acknowledgment,  without 
any  evasion  or  falsification,  that  he  thinks  it 
worth  that  much,  at  least,  to  be  a  landowning 
member  of  that  community.  The  community, 
then,  has  the  right,  according  to  its  needs,  to 
tax  that  man  precisely  in  proportion  to  the 
value  of  the  real  estate  he  owns.  If  his  real 
estate  is  very  valuable  he  is  enjoying  great 
benefits  and  should  pay  proportionately.  If  his 
holdings  are  of  little  value  he  should  pay  lit- 
tle. If  he  owns  no  land  he  should  pay  nothing. 

17 


"It  is  obvious  no  man  can  live  in  that  com- 
munity except  as  a  landowner  unless  he  ob- 
tains permission  to  live  on  somebody  else's 
land.  To  obtain  that  permission  he  will  have 
to  pay  that  landowner  at  least  all  the  latter 
thinks  the  privilege  of  using  that  land  is  worth. 
This  includes  all  the  benefits  that  the  com- 
munity confers.  Consequently  every  tenant 
pays  for  community  benefits  in  his  rent.  If  a 
further  tax  is  imposed  on  him  he  is  being  com- 
pelled to  pay  his  taxes  twice." 

"By  collecting  the  annual  value  of  every  site 
we  call  upon  the  user  of  each  site  for  a  tax 
or  rate  which  is  justly  proportioned  to  the 
benefits  which  he  derives  from  his  position 
as  user  of  that  site." — W.  Chapman  Wright, 
In  "The  Westminster  Review,"  March,  1902. 

"A  tax  on  the  value  of  land  would  put 
taxation  on  the  correct  basis  of  obligation 
to  pay  for  value  received,  instead  of  on  the 
sole  basis  of  ABILITY  to  pay.  IT  WOULD 
ALSO,  HOWEVER,  CONFORM  TO  ALL  IN 
THE  ABILITY-TO-PAY  PRINCIPLE  WHICH 
IS  SOCIALLY  OR  ETHICALLY  JUSTIFI- 
ABLE."— Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson,  in  "Harper's 
Weekly,"  July,  1913. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  a  tax  on  privilege  and 
would  reverse  the  old  order  by  which  a  man 
is  called  to  pay  to  the  state  according  to  his 
ability,  substituting  therefore  a  better  prin- 
ciple of  payment,  namely,  that  for  benefits 
received." — John  B.  Middleton,  in  "The  West- 
minster Review,"  June,  1907. 

"Land  value  is  the  true  measure  of  the  ben- 
efits which  the  community  plnces  within  the 
reach  of  its  members." — Frederick  Verinder, 
"Land,  Industry,  and  Taxation,"  p.  64. 

"The  community  has  no  right  to  exact  con- 
tributions from  its  members  in  proportion  to 
their  ability  to  pay;  but  it  has  an  undoubted 
right  to  claim  that  each  should  contribute 
toward  the  necessary  public  expenditure  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  the  advantages  or 
opportunities,  or  the  special  benefits,  it  Im 
conferring  on  him." — Lewis  H.  Berens,  "To- 
ward the  Light,"  Chap.  XV,  p.  145. 

"The  Single  Tax  operates  universally  on  all. 
No  one  can  possibly  escape.  No  one  can  shirk 
his  duty.  No  one  can  shift  the  burden  on 
another's  shoulders,  and  the  pressure  will  not 
be  felt,  being  ewial  in  all  directions  and  per- 
fectly adjusted  to  the  advantages  received.*' 
— Dr.  J.  H.  Stallard,  "The  True  Basis  of 
Economics,"  p.  100. 

12— It  Will  Giro  Us  a  Tax  System  that  Does 
Not  Molest  "Earned"  Incomes,  bnt  Which 
Taxes  Only  Those  That  Are  "Unearned." 

Another  serious  fault  of  our  present  mode 
of  taxation— a  legitimate  offspring  of  the 
vicious  "ability-to-pay"  principle— is  that  it 

18 


makes  no  discrimination  between  Incomes  that 
are  EARNED  and  Incomes  that  are  UN- 
EARNED. It  does  not  distinguish  between 
those  that  are  rightfully  obtained  through 


THE  NATURE  OP  INCOME 

The  Factor*  of 
Production 

Land 

The  Factor*  of 
Distribution 

Rent  _   _   

Income 

.  Unearned 

Labor  

Wages. 

(  Earned 

Capital  

Interest  _ 

human  industry  and  those  that  are  obtained 
simply  from  the  rent  of  natural  opportunities. 
This  fault  the  Single  Tax  will  correct.  It  will 
not  place  EARNED  incomes  in  the  same  cate- 
gory with  the  UNEARNED,  but  will  leave  the 
first  unmolested,  while  it  levies  only  on  the 
second.  Absolute  justice,  equality,  and  fair- 
ness in  the  distribution  of  governmental  bur- 
dens, will  thus  be  attained. 

"The  first  and  paramount  consideration  in 
taxation  should  be  equality  of  burden,  and 
only  by  taking  the  rental  value  of  land  tn 
taxes  can  such  equality  be  secured." — Tom  L. 

Johnson,   "My  Story,"  p.   67. 

"Take  land  values  for  public  revenue  and 
you  distribute  fairly  the  cost  of  government, 
besides  letting  the  citizen  oft  with  one  pay- 
ment instead  of  the  two  he  makes  now)  he 
now  pays  once  to  the  individual  landowner 
and  once  to  the  tax  gatherer." — Bolton  Hall, 
"Thrift,"  p.  200. 

"The  Single  Tax  on  land  values  is  a  natural 
tax,  and  therefore  the  best  tax." — John  Bagot, 
in  "The  Westminster  Review,"  October,  1909. 

"An  Income  tax  has  always  been  a  favorite 
form  of  tax,  because  it  ha»  been  regarded  a» 
well  calculated  to  bear  upon  "each  according 
to  his  ability."  The  taxation  of  ground  rent 
would  surely  be  the  purest  possible  exemplifi- 
cation and  application  of  the  principle  of  the 
income  tax,  because  it  would  fall  upon  ail 
those  incomes  'which  are  unearned,  which  are 
in  their  nature  perpetual,  and  which  are 
amply  able  to  bear  the  whole  burden  of  tax- 
ation."— C.  B.  Fillebrown,  "A  B  C  of  Tax- 
ation," p.  25. 

"The  tax  upon  land  values  is  the  most  just 
and  equal  of  all  taxes.  It  falls,  only  upon 
those  who  receive  from  society  a  peculiar  and 
valuable  benefit,  and  upon  them  in  propor- 
tion to  the  benefit  they  receive.  It  is  the 
taking  by  the  community,  for  the  use  of  the 
community,  of  that  value  which  is  the  crea- 
tion of  the  community.  It  is  the  application 
of  the  common  property  to  common  uses."— 
Henry  George,  "Progress  and  Poverty,"  p. 
418. 

19 


PART  III 

13— It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Agricultural 
Land. 

Few  persons  realize  the  colossal  extent  to 
which  the  agricultural  area  of  the  United 
States  is  now  monopolized  by  private  individ- 
uals who  are  not  using  it,  and  the  serious  in- 
dustrial consequences  to  which  this  may  soon 
lead,  unless  the  monopoly  is  broken.  The  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  on  January  28,  1914, 
stated  that  of  the  1,900,000,000  acres  in  the 
United  States,  1,501,000,000  acres  are  usable  for 
agricultural  purposes.  Since  the  Census  Re- 
port of  1910  shows  only  478,000,000  acres  to  be 
in  farms  and  improved,  and  further  since  the 
government  itself  owns  less  than  430,000,000 
acres  of  the  above,  this  means  that  almost 
600,000,000  acres  of  potential  agricultural  land 
Is  in  the  hands  of  private  monopoly.  In  other 
words,  for  every  acre  of  farm  land  in  use, 
about  one  and  one-third  acres  (owned  by 
private  individuals)  are  held  out  of  use! 

But  this  is  not  the  most  serious  part  of  the 
evil.  By  far  the  greater  portion  of  this  enor- 
mous area  is  in  the  grasp  of  a  mere  handful  of 

LAND    MONOPOLY    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES 
(Total  Area,  1,903,289,600  Acres) 

E|  -  Total  government  land.  427,200,000 

acres  -  22^ 
-  total  improved  farm  land,  1910, 

478,451,750  acres  -  25£ 
j j  -  Total  privately  owned  land  not 

under  cultivation,  997.643,250 

acres  -  52% 


— Census  Report  of  1910. 
20 


people.  Full  information  Is  nowhere  to  be  ob- 
tained, but  such  data  as  is  available  portrays 
vividly  the  high  degree  of  concentration  of 
land  ownership.  Thus  in  Arkansas  265  holders 
own  3,318,000  acres,  or  almost  one-half  as 
much  as  all  the  improved  acreage  of  the  214,- 
678  farmers  in  the  state.  In  Colorado  14  known 
holders  own  3,355,000  acres,  as  against  4,302,101 
improved  acres  owned  by  46,170  farmers.  In 
New  Mexico,  again,  the  Holland  Land  Company 
has  4,500,000  acres — more  than  three  times  the 
combined  improved  acreage  of  the  35,675  farm- 
ers in  that  commonwealth.  Numerous  other 
states,  such  a  Texas,  Florida,  Mississippi, 
Oklahoma,  Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  and  Cali- 
fornia, reveal  even  worse  conditions.  Finally 
20,647,000  acres  of  land  in  the  United  States 
— an  area  as  large  as  Ireland — is  owned  by 
only  29  foreign  syndicates  and  landlords! 

For  this  grave  situation  there  is  no  ade- 
quate solution  save  the  land  value  tax.  It 
alone  can  produce  the  desired  results.  It  alone 
can  pry  loose  this  huge  empire  of  unused  soil 
from  the  clutch  of  monopoly,  and  give  it  to 
those  who  will  build  homes  upon  it,  and  who 
will  supply  a  fast  starving  world  with  the 
necessaries  of  life.  [See  Chapter  66]. 

14— It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Coal,  Oil, 
and  Mineral  Land. 

As  with  the  agricultural  lands,  so  with  the 
coal,  oil,  and  mineral  resources  of  the  nation — 
not  merely  is  much  the  greater  part  held  out 
of  use,  but  it  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of 
a  very  few  people.  Of  the  16,153,000,000  tons 
of  anthracite  coal  underlying  the  great  fields 
of  Pennsylvania,  for  example,  more  than  44 
per  cent  is  owned  by  the  Reading  Company 
alone.  Sixty  thousand  acres  of  Connellsville 
coal,  which  Charles  M.  Schwab,  in  testifying 
before  the  Industrial  Commission  in  1901,  said 
"you  could  not  buy  for  $60,000  an  acre,"  is 
owned  by  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation. 
3,538,506,328,300  tons  of  bituminous  coal  are 
scattered  throughout  the  country — enough  to 
last  the  people  of  the  United  States  at  their 
present  rate  of  consumption  for  more  than 
five  thousand  years — but  all  owned  or  con- 
trolled by  an  insignificant  number  of  men! 

The  distribution  of  our  6,000,000  acres  of  oil 
lands  is  no  better.  How  much  the  Standard 
Oil  Company  itself  is  in  possession  of,  there 
is  no  telling.  That  the  amount  is  extensive, 
however,  is  quite  evident  from  its  colossal 
dividends.  On  April  15,  1911,  just  before  the 

21 


dissolution  by  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law,  the 
market  value  of  the  stock  of  the  companies 
included  in  the  Standard  Oil  Company  was 
$906,233,984.  On  April  1,  1917— six  years  later 
-—the  market  value  of  this  same  stock  was 
$2,154,482,627!  In  these  six  years,  according  to 
Messrs.  Carl  H.  Pforzheimer  &  Company,  in 


shadow 
fa  Ldn 
ot"h>  if*  People? 


If  tie  Valut 
isattacheji* 
tie  people  ft 


— Cartoon  by  J.  W.  Bengrough. 

their  book  "Standard  Oil  Issues,"  the  total 
amount  of  dividends  distributed,  "aggregate 
upward  of  a  billion  dollars."  The  words  of 
Mr.  Henry  H.  Klein,  First  Deputy  Commis- 
sioner of  Accounts,  New  York  City  ("Standard 
Oil  or  the  People,"  p.  17),  are  illuminating: 

"At  least  a  score  of  Standard  Oil  families 
are  worth  more  than  $25,000,000  each,  acquired 
during  the  past  thirty  years,  and  some  of  them 
have  from  $50,000,000  to  $250,000,000.  John  D. 
Rockefeller's  private  wealth  is  estimated  at 
$900,000,000,  and  it  may  exceed  one  thousand 
million  dollars  if  fully  determined." 

Passing  to  the  minerals  we  find  in  many 
cases  even  a  higher  degree  of  concentration. 
Of  the  4,784,930,000  tons  of  available  iron  ore, 
for  instance,  the  larger  portion  is  controlled 
by  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation.  Its  net 
profit  in  1916  was  $271,531,730  and  in  1917  was 
more  than  $450,000,000. 

The  Anaconda  Copper  Mining  Company  of 
Montana  showed  a  net  profit  in  1916  of  $58,892,- 
980;  the  Phelps  Dodge  Corporation  of  Arizona, 
$21,974,263;  the  Kennecott  Copper  Corporation, 
$27,884,623.  One  of  Ex-Senator  W.  A.  Clark's 
mines — United  Verde — for  which  he  recently 
refused  $75,000,000,  was  lately  reported  to  be 
paying  him  a  monthly  dividend  of  $2,000,- 
000.  Finally,  the  Utah  Copper  Company  is  said 
to  have  in  sight  at  its  mines  at  Bingham  800,- 


000,000,000  pounds  of  copper  ore.     And  copper 
is  today  selling  for  23i  cents  a  pound! 

It  is  needless  to  go  further.  A  like  condition 
prevails  in  practically  every  other  field,  both 
mineral  and  stone — lead,  zinc,  gold,  silver,  salt, 
sulphur,  borax,  potash,  granite,  rock  phosphate. 
Unless  a  remedy  such  as  that  proposed  by 
Henry  George  is  applied,  which  will  strike  at 
the  root  of  the  evil,  we  may  see  ere  long  a 
centralized  control  of  natural  resources,  so 
strong  and  powerful  that  nothing  can  dislodge 
It,  short  of  bloody  revolution! 

"If  this  principle,  the  principle  of  the  Single 
Tax  were  fully  applied,  laud  monopoly  would 
evidently  be  impossible.  Vacant  city  lot* 
could  not  be  held  long  for  higher  prices,  if 
the  owner  had  to  pay  as  heavy  a  tax  an  the 
owner  of  improved  lots  having  an  equal 
value.  Farming  land  could  not  be  kept  out 
of  use  by  the  thriftless  or  the  greedy,  nor 
by  land-grant  railroads,  if  the  unimproved 
were  taxed  as  much  as  the  improved,  the  loca- 
tions being  of  equal  value.  The  coal  and  the 
ore  mines  of  the  country  could  not  be 
monopolized  and  closed  against  mining,  if 
coal  land  were  taxed  well  up  to  its  market 
value  whether  worked  or  not.  In  every  di- 
rection this  tax  would  put  fines  upon  land 
monopolists,  thereby  discouraging  land  mon- 
opoly and  opening  to  general  use  all  the 
natural  opportunities  which  are  now  closed 
by  owners  who  expect  to  reap  a  harvest  of 
higher  prices  in  the  future." — Louis  F.  Post, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  Labor,  "Ethics  of  De- 
mocracy," p.  135. 

1&— It   Will   Break   the   Monopoly   of   Timber 
Land. 

Just  as  the  Single  Tax  will  destroy  the  mo- 
nopoly of  coal,  oil  and  mineral  land,  so  also 
will  it,  when  properly  applied,  destroy  the  mo- 
nopoly of  timber  land.  How  greatly  needed  such 
destruction  is,  is  evident  not  merely  from  the 
fact  that  the  present  commercial  value  of  the 
privately  owned  standing  timber  in  the  country 
NOT  INCLUDING  THE  VALUE  OF  THE  LAND, 
was  estimated  by  the  government  in  1913  as 
"at  least  $6,000,000,000,"  but  because  it,  like  the 
coal,  oil,  and  mineral  resources,  is  now  owned 
by  a  mere  handful  of  financiers.  The  following 
sentences,  taken  from  the  report  on  "The  Lum- 
ber Industry  "  (Bureau  of  Corporations,  Wash- 
ington, 1913,  Pt.  I.,  pp.  XVII-XXI),  shows  the 
present  extent  of  the  concentration  of  Amer- 
ica's privately  owned  standing  timber: 

"Five-elevenths  of  the  country's  privately 
owned  standing  timber  is  in  the  Pacific  North- 
west (California,  Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho, 

23 


and  Montana),  1,013  billion  feet.  One-half  of 
this  is  now  owned  by  37  holders.  *  *  *  In 
the  Southern  pine  region  there  are  634  billion 
feet  of  privately  owned  timber.  *  *  * 
Sixty-seven  holders  own  39  per  cent,  of  the 
long  leaf  yellow  pine,  29  per  cent,  of  the 
cypress,  19  per  cent,  of  the  short  leaf  and  lob- 
lolly pine,  and  11  per  cent,  of  the  hardwoods. 

WHO   OWNS  THE  LUMBER  SUPPLY? 

JH  -  Standing  timber  owned  by  1,802  big 

timber  holder a ,  1,208, 800, 000, OCX) 

board  feet  -  43# 
I  f  -  Standing  timber  owned  by  remainder 

of  population,  988,000,000,000 

board  feet  -  35# 
tyl/lft  -  Standing  timber  owned  by  state  and 

national  governments,  629,000,000, 

000  board  feet  - 


— Federal  Report  on  "The  Lumber  Industry," 
Pt.  I,  p.  12.  Government  Printing  Office, 
1914. 


In  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  and  Michigan,  there 
are  100  billion  feet  of  privately  owned  timber. 
In  Wisconsin  96  holders  have  three-fourths  of 
all  the  timber.  In  Michigan  110  holders  have 
66  per  cent.  In  Minnesota  6  holders  have  54 
per  cent,  of  the  very  valuable  white  and  Nor- 
way pine,  16  per  cent,  of  the  other  conifers  and 
2  per  cent,  of  the  hardwoods.  Taking  all  three 
states,  215  holders  have  65  per  cent,  of  all  the 
timber.  *  *  *  Three  vast  holdings  alone, 
those  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Company,  the 
Weyerhaeuser  Timber  Company,  and  the  Nor- 
thern Pacific  Railway  Company  (including 
their  subsidiary  companies)  together  have  238 

24 


billion  feet.  These  three  holdings  have  enougu 
standing  timber  to  build  an  ordinary  five  or 
six  room  frame  house  for  each  of  the  16,000,000 
families  in  the  United  States  in  1900.  If  sawed 
into  lumber  and  placed  in  cars,  their  timber 
would  load  a  train  about  100,000  miles  long." 


"At  a  time  when  Congress  is  much  per- 
plexed for  a  source  of  revenue  which  will  not 
penalize  business,  It  could  study,  very  profit- 
ably, the  effect  of  the  war  on  land  value**. 
The  Investigation  would  show  how  land  val- 
ues are  the  product  of  population,  how  they 
are  public  wealth  now  taken  by  private  in- 
terests. The  truth  is  so  apparent,  on  investi- 
gation Congress  might  conclude  to  liberate 
Industry  and  business  from  taxes  and  super- 
taxes and  avail  itself  of  the  land  values  cre- 
ated by  society  as  revenues  with  which  to  pay 
the  administration  and  maintenance  of  soci- 
ety's government." — Circular  of  Division  of 
Public  Works,  United  States  Department  of 
Labor,  February,  1919. 

"Tax  reform  should  seek  to  remove  all  bur- 
dens from  capital  and  labor  and  impose  them 

on     monopolies." — Prof.     John     R.     Commons, 
"The  Distribution  of  Wealth,"  p.  258. 

"We  recommend!  "The  revision  of  the  tax- 
ation system  so  as  to  exempt  from  taxation 
all  improvement*  and  tax  unused  Ir.ud  at  its 
full  rental  value." — Final  Report  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Industrial  Relations,  p.  132. 


16— It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  TVaterpower 
Land. 

"Eighteen  corporations,"  says  the  great  ex-    ^/ 
ponent   of   conservation,   Mr.   Gifford   Pinchot, 
"control  more  than  one-half  of  the  total  water 
power  used  in  public  service  throughout  the 
United  States.   Furthermore,  120  public  service 
corporations  own  and  are  holding  undeveloped       , 
and  out  of  use  an  amount  of  water  power  equal   / 
to  four-fifths  of  all  there  is  developed  and  in 
use  by  all  the  public  service  corporations  In 
the  whole  United  States." 


"By  diverting  ground  rents  and  royalties 
from  private  pockets  into  the  public  treas- 
ury, the  monopoly  of  natural  opportunities 
would  cease.  No  longer  would  it  be  profitable 
to  own  and  hold  idle  valuable  building  lota> 
farming  land,  mineral  deposits,  water  powers, 
water  fronts,  or  any  other  of  the  gifts  of 
nature  to  man." — L.  F.  C.  Garvin,  Ex-Gov- 
ernor of  Rhode  Island,  in  "The  Single  Tax 
Review,"  January-February,  1917. 


25 


WHO    CONTROLS    THE    WATERPOWER? 

139  -  Waterpower  controlled  by  59  cor- 
porations, 3,621,423  h.p.  -  65.9$ 

t  j  -  Waterpower  controlled  by  eJLl  other 
private  individuals,  1,693,751 
h.£i  -  29.8?$ 

-  Waterpcirer  controlled  by  naumicipal 
governments,  231,525  h.p*  -  4.3# 


/  — See  "Electric  Power  Development  in  the  United 
States,"  Pt.  II,  pp.  79-80.  Dep't  of  Agricul- 
ture Report,  1916. 


17— It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Urban  Land. 

It  is  conservatively  estimated  that  not  less 
than  $20,000,000,000  worth  of  land  in  the  vil- 
lages, towns  and  cities  of  America  is  being 
held  out  of  service  by.  speculators  for  a  still 
further  enhancement  in  price.  In  other  words, 
from  one-third  to  four-fifths  of  every  urban 
center  in  the  nation,  whether  old  or  young,  is 
vacant  property.  In  the  aged  city  of  Boston, 
for  example,  the  proportion  is:  Occupied,  45 
per  cent.;  vacant,  43  per  cent.;  marsh,  12  per 
cent.  This  immense  blockade  to  legitimate 
business  can  be  stopped  only  in  one  satisfac- 
tory way — by  taxing  the  unused  land  as  much 
as  the  used  land — due  consideration  being 
given,  of  course,  to  location. 

"Taxing  economic  rent  into  the  public 
treasury  would  destroy  monopoly  of  natural 
opportunities  in  the  urban  centers  just  as  it 
would  destroy  land  monopoly  elsewhere." — 

Henry  George,  Jr.,  "The  Menace  of  Privilege," 
p.    393. 

26 


"The  burden  of  municipal  taxation  nhould 
be  mo  shifted  an  to  put  the  weight  of  taxation 
upon  the  unearned  rise  in  value  of  the  land 
Itnelf,  rather  than  upon  the  Improvement*."— 

Col.    Theodore    Roosevelt,    in    "The    Century," 
October,    1913. 

"We  should  no  longer  hesitate  to  force  un- 
used land*  into  uwe  by  exempting  all  improve- 
ments from  taxation  and  by  placing  a  tax  on 
non-productive*  the  name  na  on  productive, 
land." — Matthew  Woll,  Assistant  to  Samuel 
Gompers  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Labor  of  the  Advisory  Commission  of  the 
Council  of  National  Defense,  before  the  Bos- 
ton Conference  on  Housing,  December,  1918. 

THREE-FIFTHS    OF    THE    AVERAGE    AMERI- 
CAN CITY  CONSISTS  OF  VACANT  GROUND 


Unimproved  jj#         Improved 

land 


— Estimated  by  John  Z.  White,  Chicago,   111. 

18— It  Will  Break  the  Monopoly  of  Railroad 
Rights  of  Way,  Pipe  Lines,  Terminals, 
Waterfronts,  Stockyards,  and  Public 
Franchises. 

Railroad  rights  of  way  and  public  franchises 
are  usually  not  thought  of  as  land  titles,  but 
that  is  what  they  are.  By  an  act  of  sovereign 
authority  they  confer  rights  of  control  for 
transportation  or  transmission  purposes  over 
narrow  strips  of  land  at  terminals  and  between 
terminals.  The  value  of  these  rights  of  way 
and  public  franchises  are  land  values  and 
will  be  so  treated  under  the  Single  Tax.  The 
application  of  this  fiscal  reform  will,  according 
to  the  calculations  of  Mr.  Benjamin  C.  Marsh, 
squeeze  from  six  to  eight  billion  dollars'  worth 
of  "water"  or  land  value  out  of  the  railroads 
alone,  while  in  the  case  of  street  car  systems, 
telegraph  and  telephone  lines,  electric  light 
27 


and  power,  waterworks,  steam  heating  compan- 
ies, etc.,  from  one-third  to  two-thirds  of  their 
present  fictitious  capitalization  will  be  elimi- 
nated. A  similar  effect  will  be  registered  on 
corporations  controlling  stockyards,  pipe  lines, 
and  water  fronts. 

WHO    CONTROLS    THE    STOCKYARDS? 

Out  of  a  total  of  83,058,785  head  of  stock  re- 
ceived at  all  stockyards  in  the  United  States, 
64,113,530,  or  77.2%,  are  received  at  yards  con- 
trolled by  five  big  packing:  interests: 

|B  -  Stockyards  controlled  by  the  "Bic 
Five"  packing  companies  -  77.2$ 

I 1  -  Stockyards  controlled  by  all  other 

companies,  22.8^ 


S         — See  report  of  "The  Federal  Trade  Commission 
on  the  Meat  Packing  Industry,"  Pt.  1,  p.  131. 

"When  we  consider  that  the  lands  to  be 
taxed  are  not  only  town  building  sites  and 
coal  fields,  and  the  immensely  valuable  lands 
that  lie  in  or  near  the  large  cities  or  border 
our  harbors,  and  the  millions  of  acres  of 
virgin  farm  lands,  but  also  railroad  rights- 
of-way,  vast  mineral  resources,  etc.,  then  we 
see  that  in  land  value  taxation  we  have  an 
easy,  simple  method  of  forcing  the  hand  of 
monopoly  to  relax  its  hold  upon  natural  re- 
S  sources." — Bolton  Hall,  in  "The  Annals  of  the 
American  Academy,"  May,  1915. 

PART  IV 

19— It  Will  Destroy  the  Injurious  Power  of  the 
Trusts. 

When  it  is  proposed  to  remove  all  tax  bur- 
dens from  improvements  and  personal  property 
— from  stocks  and  bonds,  machinery,  sky- 

28 


scraper  office  buildings,  mills,  plants,  factories, 
and  the  like — many  good  folks  take  fright  and 
fear  that  this  will  tend  to  strengthen  the  auto- 
cratic power  of  the  trusts.  On  the  contrary,  it 
will  completely  dissipate  It.  For  trusts  do  not 
derive  their  influence  from  commodities  that 
are  reproducible,  but  from  commodities  that 
are  NOT  reproducible.  Their  tribute-levying 

DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN   LAND   AND 
WEALTH 

The  older  land  gets  and  the  more  It  is  lifted, 
the  MORE  VALUABLE  it  becomes. 

The  older  wealth  gets  and  the  more  it  IK 
used,  the  LESS  VALUABLE  it  become*. 

The  following  illustration,  typical  of  all 
other  forms  of  wealth,  shows  how  the  old 
Hotel  Boylston,  at  the  southeast  corner  of 
Boylston  and  Tremont  streets,  in  Boston, 
steadily  declined  in  value,  while  the  land 
on  which  it  stood,  at  the  same  time,  steadily 
increased  in  value: 


li 


The  BUILDING  decreased  in  vn3 
in  twenty-five  years  to  nothli 


.Valuation 


L897 


Is 

r 


The  LAND 

increased  in  value  in  twenty-five 
yearo  raore  than  threefold 


8 


— From  "The  A  B  C  of  Taxation",  by  C.  B.  Fille- 
brown,    p.    22. 

power  is  not  secured  from  the  ownership  of 
the  things  made  by  man — capital — but  from  the 
ownership  of  the  things  made  by  nature — 
monopoly — mill  sites,  water  fronts,  coal,  oil, 
gas,  timber,  mineral  resources,  and  the  like, 
together  with  the  products  of  the  legislative 
bodies  of  states,  such  as  patent  and  tariff  priv- 
ileges, rights  of  way  and  public  franchises. 
These,  and  these  alone,  are  the  things  that 
make  trusts  bad  and  dangerous.  Concentrate 
the  whole  burden  of  taxation  upon  these  mo- 
nopolies and  the  trusts'  strength  will  not 
grow,  but  vanish,  just  as  Samson's  strength 
vanished  with  the  cutting  of  his  hair. 

29 


"If  the  people  really  want  to  destroy  the*e 
no-called  "trusts,"  they  must  abandon  the 
fiction  of  taxing  the  capital  stock,  the  bonds, 
and  the  working  plants  of  these  great  cor- 
porations, and  apply  the  whole  power  of 
taxation  to  the  monopolistic  feature  that  is 
the  basis  of  them  all." — Oliver  R.  Trow- 
bridge,  "Bisocialism,"  p.  377. 

"Tax  the  social  value  of  land  and  there 
would  be  no  further  need  for  anti- trust  leg- 
islation or  of  laws  for  the  control  of  public 
utilities." — Albert  J.  Nock,  in  "The  American 
Magazine,"  November,  1912. 

"The  Single  Tax  would  be  fatal  to  all  the 
trusts  and  monopolies  that  depend  either  on 
land  monopoly  or  some  form  of  unjust  tax- 
ation for  support.  When  it  is  borne  in  mind 
that  under  it  there  will  be  neither  protective 
tariff  nor  revenue  tariff;  that  there  will  be 
no  Internal  revenue  duties;  no  local  or  stnte 
taxes,  either  direct  or  indirect  on  industry 
and  its  products,  it  should  be  easy  to  see  that 
the  trusts  now  fostered  by  one  or  more  of 
these  forms  of  special  privilege  will  have 
lost  their  power  to  monopolize  the  industries 
they  now  control." — Daniel  Kiefer,  in  "The 
Single  Tax  Review,"  January-February,  1915. 

"Monopoly  of  landed  property  is  even  the 
basis  of  monopoly  of  capital  and  by  the  capi- 
talists."— Karl  Marx.  See  his  Gotha-plat- 
form  letter,  reprinted  in  "The  International 
Socialist  Review,"  Chicago,  May,  1908. 

"If  we  were  to  tax  Mr.  Rockefeller  up  to 
the  full  value  of  the  oil  wells,  iron  mines, 
and  rlghts-of-way  that  his  company  holds 
.  .  .  the  fangs  of  that  trust  would  be 
drawn." — Bolton  Hall,  in  "The  Arena,"  Oc- 
tober, 1901. 

"Until  the  Single  Tax  makes  all  of  our 
mineral  resources  equally  available  to  all  the 
community,  thus  destroying  the  special  profits 
now  accruing  to  those  able  to  hold  land  out 
of  use,  the  most  oppressive  trusts  in  exis- 
tence will  find  their  way  clear  to  retain  their 
power,  despite  anti-trust  laws,  interstate 
commerce  laws,  and  all  the  publicity  we  may 
by  law  give  their  operations." — Jackson  H. 
Ralston,  in  "The  Arena,"  October,  1901. 

"A  tax  taking  for  public  use  all  the  econo- 
mic rent  of  the  hard  coal  lands — lands  un- 
worked  as  well  as  lands  worked — would  de- 
stroy the  Anthracite  Coal  Trust  .  .  .  Ap- 
ply such  a  tax  to  the  Steel  Trust,  to  the  Oil 
Trust,  to  the  Lumber  Trust,  to  the  Salt  Trust, 
to  the  Borax  Trust,  to  the  hundred  and  one 
great  industrial  combinations  and  they  would 
go  to  pieces  in  the  same  fashion  as  the  Coal 
Trust  would." — Henry  George,  Jr.,  "The  Men- 
ace of  Privilege,"  pp.  389-391. 

"There  could  be  no  oppressive  organization 
of  capital  [under  the  Single  Taxi  because 
capital  would  have  no  privileges." — Tom  L. 

Johnson,   "My  Story,"  p.  155. 

30 


20— It  Will  Free  Competition  in  Industry. 

The  restraint  of  trade,  the  commercial  han- 
dicaps, and  the  "jug-handled  competition"  from 
which  all  honest  industry  constantly  suffers, 
and  which  are  the  fundamental  causes  of  prac- 
tically every  business  failure,  are  the  inevitable 
results  of  monopoly  and  special  privilege.  As 
these  monopolies  and  special  privileges  will 
be  removed  when  land  values  exclusively  are 
taxed,  it  goes  without  saying  that  capital  and 
labor  will  be  liberated  from  the  bonds  which 
now  shackle  them,  and  free  competition — the 
"life  of  trade" — will  be  permanently  restored 
to  its  own. 

"It  Is  only  by  the  substitution  of  the  Single 
Tax  on  land  values  for  all  other  rates  and 
taxes  that  trade  and  Industry  can  really  be 
set  free." — John  B.  Middleton,  in  "The  West- 
minster Review,"  June,  1907. 

"The  Single  Tax,  by  destroying:  land  mon- 
opoly, the  basic  and  most  dangerous  form  of 
special  privilege,  restores  free  competition  to 
a  condition  of  full  vitality,  giving  to  every 
worker  the  freedom  characteristic  of  primi- 
tive and  pioneer  conditions  of  production, 
while  increasing  his  powers  to  produce  and 
his  share  of  the  common  product  by  the  enor- 
mous advantages  gained  through  modern  ma- 
chinery, Intensive  large  scale  production,  ex- 
pert supervision  and  the  most  efficient  di- 
vision of  labor  and  specialization  in  the 
direction  of  the  expenditure  of  energy."— 
James  F.  Morton,  Jr.,  in  "The  Single  Tax 
Year  Book,"  p.  233. 

"Single  Tax  seems  to  me  to  be  the  basic 
reform  of  all;  the  shattering  of  the  fetters  of 
tradition}  the  destruction  of  every  obstacle 
that  stands  between  man  and  the  earth  upon 
which  he  must  live;  the  release  of  the  inert 
and  unused  forces  of  human  labor;  the  death- 
knell  of  unnatural  speculation,  and,  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  the 
entering  wedge  of  the  irresistible  power  of 
actual  freedom." — Benjamin  F.  Lindas,  in 
"The  Single  Tax  Review,"  May-June,  1917. 

21— It  Will   Eliminate   Multi-Millionaires   and 
Sweep  Away  Overgrown  Fortunes. 

Socialists  and  other  radicals,  when  asked  to 
name  the  underlying  cause  of  large  fortunes, 
invariably  answer — capital.  Why  is  this?  Evi- 
dently, It  is  due  simply  to  a  failure  to  recognize 
the  essential  difference  between  "capital"  and 
"monopoly" — in  other  words,  the  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish properly  between  what  is  really 
"capital"  and  what  is  mere  "capitalization." 
Take  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  for 
example.  This  corporation  has  a  capitalization 

31 


of  some  $1,500,000,000.  But  this  colossal  cap- 
italization  is  not  based  on  the  earning  power 
of  its  pure  capital— its  great  furnaces,  rolling 
mills,  ships,  docks,  etc.,— for  these,  all  com- 
bined, are  not  worth  more  than  $300,000,000  or 

UNEARNED  VS.  EARNED  INCOMES 

$1,899,836,618 


BapMmmmiiummsMHBTaip* 

$li  885,  846,  491 

THIS  SPACE  SHOWS  THE  TOTAL 
VALUE  OP  MORE  THAN  50  IMPORT- 
ANT FARM  CROPS  PRODUCED  OH 
ALL  AMERICAN  FARMS   (SEE  CEN- 
SUS  REPORT)   IN  1909: 

Cereals 
Whoat  ...    .                $657  666  801 

THIS  SPACE 

Barley  92  458  671 

Buckche&t  9  330  590 

SHOWS 

Kafir  corn  10  816  940 

THE  NET  GROUND  RENT 

Emmor  and  spelt..       6,584,050 

(IHCLUDINO  $90, 

Minor  Field  Crops 

a 

EARNED  PROFITS 

All  other  595,674 
Vegetables 
Potatoes  166  423  910 

RECEIVED  IN  TWELVE  YEARS 

Sweet  potatoes...     35,429,176 
Dry  edible  beans.     21,771,482 
Other  beans  241,060 

(1906-1917) 

Other  vegetables.  216^257)068 
Sugar  Crops  sjid  Products 

BY  THE 

LANDOWNERS 

Sorghum  cane  10,174,457 
Sugar  cane  26,416,952 
Uapla  sugar  6,177,805 
Orchard  Fruits 

OP  THE 

Peaches  28,781,078 

BOROUGH  OP  MANHATTAN 

Plums  and  prunes.     10,299,496 

m*»    vf 

IV11  others  629  403 

Small  Fruits 
Grapes  22  027  961 

-  From  The  Annual  Re- 
port of  Commissioners 
of  Taxes  and  Assess- 
ments of  the  City  of 
EOT  York,  1917 

Strawberries..      .     17,913,926 
Blackberries..      -       3,909,831 
Raspberries...      .       6,122,277 
Cranberries...      •       -1-.-7C6.613 
All  other  1,262,834 
Subtropical  Fruits 

•/VP9             4»UT>      &  OT»  * 

*         IS* 

All  other.  -            143  467 

IS  TTTENTY-TirO  SQUARE 
MILES  —  1/13  OF  TEE 

ft*. 

AREA  OP  THE  WHOLE  CITY 

Walnuts  2  297  336 

uTrt»    T                   oWUAKE 

0?  A  TOWNSHIP.   OR 
EQUAL  IN  SIZE  TO  EIGH- 
TY-EIGHT 160  ACRE 

All  other  466)772 
Seeds 
Cotton  seed  121,076,984 

urass  seed  16,137,683 
Flower  and  vege- 
table eeeds?..         1,411,013 
Miscellaneous....           768,626 
Miscellaneous 

Flowers  and  piartii  _3_4J872J3t9 
Grand  Total,   $1,885,846,491 

$400,000,000;  it  is  based  on  the  earning  power 
of  the  monopolies  it  owns — on  its  immense 
coal,  timber,  and  ore  lands,  its  water  fronts, 
railroad  sites,  together  with  its  numerous 
tariff  and  patent  privileges.  Or  take  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  as  another  illustration.  The 
market  value  of  the  stocks  of  the  various  com- 
panies included  in  this  great  octupus,  on  April 
1,  1917,  was  $2,154,482,627.  But  only  a  small 

32 


part  of  this  enormous  sum  really  represented 
capital.  The  major  portion  represented  merely 
the  power  to  appropriate  the  fruits  of  other 
men's  toil — in  short,  monopoly.  The  same 
holds  true  of  every  other  industry,  whether 
mining,  lumbering,  manufacturing,  transporta- 
tion, communication,  or  exchange.  It  is  not 
the  ownership  of  capital  itself,  that  is  respon- 
sible for  over-grown  fortunes,  but  monopoly, 
or  land  values.  Throw  the  entire  burden  of 
taxation  on  these  land  values,  and  the  great 
fortunes  will  be  laid  in  the  dust. 

"If  the  size  of  fortunes  i»  taken  Into  ac- 
count, it  will  be  found  that  perhaps  95%  of 
the  total  values  represented  by  these  million- 
aire fortunes  is  due  to  those  investments 
classed  n»  land  values  and  natural  monopo- 
lies, and  to  competitive  industries  aided  by 
mien  monopolies." — Prof.  John  R.  Commons, 
"The  Distribution  of  Wealth,"  p.  253. 

"All  the  unwieldy  fortunes,  and  all  which 
have  had  an  undesirable  origin,  owe  their 
existence  to  some  form  of  monopoly,  which 
could  not  hrive  existed  under  the  natural  ays- 
tern  of  taxation." — Thomas  G.  Shearman,  "Na- 
tural Taxation,"  p.  211. 


"Whoever  examines  such  large  fortui 
•whether  they  are  those  of  territorial  mag- 
nates, as  the  Duke  of  Westminster  and  Bed- 
ford, the  Enri  of  Durham,  the  Marquis  of 
Bute,  or  the  Astor  family;  or  whether  they 
arc  those  of  commercial  and  industrial  mag- 
nates, an  the  Rothschilds,  Rockefellers, 
Goulds,  Vanderbilts,  and  others— can  see  at 
once  that  they  mainly  consist,  not  of  real 
wealth,  but  of  the  value  of  monopoly  rights." 
— Max  Hirsch,  "Democracy  Versus  Socialism," 
p.  398. 

'•"When  you  investigate  the  source  of  the 
Incomes  [of  capitalists],  their  'capital'  prove* 
to  be  nearly  all  land." — Louis  F.  Post,  As- 
sistant Secretary  of  Labor,  in  "The  Taxation 
of  Land  Values,"  Note  86. 

"The  chief  sources  of  the  enormous  indi- 
vidual wealth  In  this  country  are  these  three i 
Land,  natural  forces,  state  franchises.  The 
multi-millionaires  have  accumulated  their 
multi-millions,  not  chiefly  as  a  product  of 
their  own  Industry;  they  have  accumulated 
them  by  getting  possession  and  control  of 
the  land  and  Its  contents,  the  natural  forces 
of  the  world,  and  the  franchises  which  the 
state  has  created." — Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  "The 
Industrial  Problem,"  pp.  140,  141. 

22— It    Will    Insure    a    Just    Distribution    of 
Wealth. 

Not  merely,  however,  will  the  Single  Tax 
cut  down  the  incomes  of  the  predatory  rich; 
it  will  give  to  all  who  produce,  or  who  render 
a  service  to  mankind,  the  full  fruits  of  their 

33 


toil.  This  will  be  more  clearly  seen  if  we  con- 
sider for  a  moment  the  factors  of  production 
and  distribution  as  they  are  recognized  in 
political  economy.  Three  things,  say  econo- 
mists, are  required  to  produce  wealth — land, 
labor,  and  capital.  Land,  of  course,  refers  to 
nature,  the  whole  material  universe — oceans, 
lakes,  agricultural  soil,  coal  deposits,  mineral 
beds,  forests,  urban  ground,  waterfalls,  rail- 
road sites,  etc.  Labor  refers  to  human  exer- 
tion, and  capital  again,  simply  to  the  "tools 
of  production,"  or  to  that  part  of  wealth  which 
is  used  to  produce  more  wealth. 

Three  things,  also,  divide  the  wealth  pro- 
duced— rent,  wages,  and  interest.  Rent  is  that 
part  of  the  wealth  produced  which  goes  to  the 
landowner  for  the  use  of  the  land;  wages,  that 


1607 


THE    RISE    OP    L.AND    VALUES 

1700  1800  1900 


* 

Value  of  land 
in  1919  - 
125,000,000,000 

1 

Value  of  land 
in  1607  - 
"0" 

- 

__^^ 

y 

(Estimated   from   the   latest   official  data.) 

part  of  the  wealth  produced  which  goes  to  the 
laborer  for  services  performed;  and  interest, 
that  part  of  the  wealth  produced  which  goes 
to  the  capitalist  for  the  service  of  capital. 

Now  the  tendency  of  material  progress  (and 
by  material  progress  we  mean  increase  of 
population,  improvements  in  the  arts  of  pro- 
duction and  exchange — discoveries,  inventions, 
scientific  knowledge,  etc.),  is  always  to  in- 
crease the  tribute  of  the  landowners;  never 
to  increase  the  earnings  of  the  capitalists  and 
laborers.  It  is  never  to  advance  proportion- 
ately either  wages  or  interest,  but  always  to 
advance  rent,  to  raise  the  value  of  land.  Thus 
agricultural  land— that  owned  by  speculators 
as  well  as  that  owned  by  farmers — has,  in  300 
years,  under  the  influence  of  material  progress, 
risen  from  0  to  more  than  $38,000,000,000;  coal, 
oil,  gas,  and  all  mineral  deposits  from  0  to 
more  than  $27,000,000,000;  forests  from  0  to 
more  than  $6,000,000,000;  railroad  rights  of 
way  and  public  franchises  from  0  to  more 
than  $15,000,000,000;  and  town  and  city  lots 

34 


from  0  to  more  than  $40,000,000,000 — In  short, 
all  land  has,  within  this  period  of  time,  risen 
from  0  to  a  grand  total  of  approximately  $125,- 
000,000,000!  Upon  this  gigantic  sum  the  land- 

TI1I-:    DISTRIBUTION    OF    LAND    VALUES 

Urban  land 
$40,000,000,000 

Agricultural  land 
•38,000,000,000 

Oil,  gas,  and 

mining  land 

$27,000,000,000 

Franchises  and 
R.R.   right s -of -fray 
$15,000,000,000 

Timber  land 
16,000,000,000 

Water  fronts  and 

water  powers 
$2,000,000,000 


owning  classes  are  now  collecting  a  rent  vari- 
ously estimated  at  from  $4,000,000,000  to  $6,- 
000,000,000  a  year,  above  all  taxes! 

This  unsocial  tendency  the  Single  Tax  will 
stop.  No  longer  will  the  non-producers  gain 
at  the  expense  of  the  producers,  but  the  pro- 
ducers will  gain  at  the  expense  of  the  non- 
producers.  By  taking  the  economic  rent  away 
from  the  landowners  and  turning  it,  in  lieu 
of  taxation,  into  the  treasury  of  the  state,  the 
capitalists  and  laborers  will  receive  in  the 
future  all  that  they  are  rightly  entitled  to 
receive — the  full  advantages  of  material  prog- 
ress, the  complete  benefits  of  advancing  civil- 
ization. 

"Every  Improvement  In  the  circumstance* 
of  the  society  tends  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  raise  the  real  rent  of  land,  to  in- 
crease the  real  wealth  of  the  landlord,  his 
power  of  purchasing  the  labour  or  the  pro- 
duce of  the  labour  of  the  people." — Dr.  Adam 
Smith,  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  Book  I,  Chap.  XL 

"The  ordinary  progress  of  society  which 
increases  in  wealth  is  at  all  times  tending 
to  augment  the  incomes  of  landlords!  to  give 
them  a  greater  amount  of  the  wealth  of  the 
community  independently  of  any  trouble  or 
outlay  incurred  by  themselves.  They  grow 
richer  as  it  were,  in  their  sleep,  •without 
working,  risking,  or  economising." — John 
Stuart  Mill,  "Principles  of  Political  Economy," 
Book  V,  Chap.  II,  Sec.  6. 

"The  large  additions  to  the  wealth  of  the 
country  [England]  has  gone  neither  to  profits 
nor  to  wages,  nor  yet  to  the  public  nt  large, 

35 


bat  to  swell  n  fund  ever  growing:  even  while 
its  proprietors  sleep— the  rent  roll  of  the 
owner*  of  the  soil." — J.  E.  Cairnes,  "Some 
Principles  of  Political  Economy  Newly  Ex- 
pounded." 

"Every  permanent  improvement  of  the  soil, 
every  railway  and  road,  every  betterment  in 
the  general  condition  of  society,  every  facil- 
ity given  to  production,  every  stimulus  sup- 
plied to  consumption,  raises  rent." — Prof. 
Thorold  Rogers,  "Six  Centuries  of  Work  and 
Wages." 

2a— It  Will  Lower  the  Cost  of  Living. 

How  will  the  taxation  of  land  values  lower 
the  cost  of  living?  In  several  ways: 

(1)  Production  will  be  enormously  increased. 
Natural  resources  of  all  kinds  being  available 
on  every  side  and  capital  easier  to  secure,  the 
output  of  food,  clothing,  and   shelter  will  be 
vastly  greater  than  it  is  today. 

(2)  The  consumer  will  be  relieved  of  the 
payment  of  all  taxes  on   the  products  of  in- 
dustry.   Under  our  present  system,  as  business 
men  and  economists  well  know,  the  "ultimate 
consumer"  must  always  pay,  in  the  price  of  the 
goods  or  services  he  buys,  for  all  taxes  levied 
upon    working    capital    in    any    of    its    forms, 
whether  in  the  shape  of  depots,  rolling  stock, 
elevators,    ships,    machinery,    factories,    office 
buildings,  or  warehouses,  and  whether  owned 
by  railroads,  transmission  companies,  miners, 
lumbermen,  manufacturers,  wholesalers,  or  re- 
tailers. 

(3)  The   private   tribute   collected   by   cor- 
porations from  consumers  as  a  result  of  the 
taxes    levied   upon   business   will    be   stopped. 
Take,  for  example,  the  excess-profits  tax.    This 
tax,    in    1919,    yielded    the    government    over 
$2,000,000,000  of  revenue.     But  for  the  $2,000,- 
000,000  that  the  government  got,  from  $5,000,- 
000,000    to   $10,000,000,000   more,   according   to 
various   estimates,  were  taken  from  the  con- 
sumers in  higher  prices  of  goods.     Chairman 
William  B.  Colver  of  the  Federal  Trade  Com- 
mission   in    an    address    delivered    before    the 
National  Wholesale  Dry  Goods  Association  in 
New  York  (January,  1920)  said: 

"The  excess-profit  tax,  in  my  opinion,  is  one 
of  the  cornerstones  of  the  present  unhealthy  and 
intolerable  price  structure  in  this  country.  The 
excess-profits  tax  is  passed  on  and  multiplied 
until  about  four  or  five  dollars  is  taken  out  of 
your  pocket,  my  pocket,  and  the  pocket  of  the 
man  on  the  street  for  every  dollar  that  finally 
gets  to  the  public  treasury." 

The  same  profiteering  is  true  in  the  case 
of  the  indirect  taxes — particularly  the  tariff 
duties.  For  every  dollar  that  the  tariff  puts 

36 


into  the  national  treasury,  a  great  many  more 
dollars  are  taken  away  from  the  public  and 
placed  into  private  hands.  Mr.  Lee  Francis 
Lybarger  in  his  illuminating  work,  "The 
Tariff,"  (Chap.  XVII,  p.  66)  says: 

"Taking  the  entire  Payne-Aldrich  Tariff  it 
would  be  a  safe  estimate  to  say  that  for  every 
dollar  it  gives  the  government  it  puts  seven 
dollars  into  private  hands.  Every  year  our 
government — under  our  direction — in  order  to 
raise  $300,000,000  for  itself,  takes  out  of  our 
pockets  something  like  eight  times  that  amount 
—or  $2,400,000,000." 

All  told,  therefore,  from  two  hundred  to  five 
hundred  dollars  a  year  would  be  a  moderate 
estimate  of  the  average  amount  that  each 
family  in  the  nation  will  gain  in  lower  prices 
by  the  deflection  of  all  taxes  from  the  products 
of  industry  to  the  value  of  land. 


"The  abolition  of  Indirect  taxes  and  mon- 
opoly charges  would  add  from  $100  to  $200 
a  year  to  the  purchasing  power  of  each  fam- 
ily. The  price  of  commodities  would  fall  to 
this  extent.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  aboli- 
tion of  all  taxes  upon  houses,  building,  and 
things  which  labor  produces  would  still  fur- 
ther reduce  the  cost  of  living.  It  would 
cheapen  the  cost  of  everything  consumed. 
For  taxes  upon  labor  products  are  shifted  on 
from  the  producer  to  the  consumer  until  they 
are  finally  lodged  with  him  who  buys,  with 
these  taxes  abolished  prices  would  still  fur- 
ther fall." — Frederic  C.  Howe,  Ex-Com- 
missioner of  Immigration,  in  "Privilege  and 
Democracy  In  America,"  p.  277. 

"A  tax  on  the  monopoly  value  of  land  can 
not  be  shifted  *  *  *  Competition,  there- 
fore, beginning  at  the  source  of  production 
must  beneficially  affect  the  laborer,  raise  his 
wage,  lower  the  cost  of  commodities,  and  re- 
move the  irregularities  in  the  distribution  of 
wealth." — Francis  Neilson,  "The  Old  Free- 
dom", p.  171. 


24— it  Will  Reduce  the  Rent  of  Land. 

Another  way  in  which  the  taxation  of  land 
values  exclusively  will  lower  the  cost  of  living 
is  by  reducing  the  rent  of  land.  The  present 
rent  is  too  high.  It  is  fictitious.  It  is  the 
inevitable  consequence  of  land  speculation — 
the  inevitable  result  of  holding  desirable  land 
out  of  use.  Since  the  application  of  the  Single 
Tax  will  make  unprofitable  the  monopolization 
of  vacant  land,  and  further  since  this  vacant 
land  now  exceeds  both  in  country  and  city, 
the  amount  which  is  in  actual  use,  we  may 
safely  expect,  under  this  reform,  to  see  the 
rent  of  all  ground  considerably  reduced. 

37 


TAKING  IT  ALL, 


— From  The  Chicago  Daily  News. 


"The  direct  tendency  of  (land  value)  taxa- 
tion is  to  break  down  land  monopoly,  and 
thus  to  reduce  rents." — Lewis  H.  Berens, 
"Toward  the  Light,"  p.  146. 

"A  tax  upon  the  value  of  bare  land-forms, 
irrespective  of  improvements,  .  .  .  tends  to 
decrease  the  rental  values  of  all  land-forms." 

— Oliver     R.     Trowbridge,     "Bisocialisra,"     p. 
256. 

"The  taxation  of  land  values  will  have  th« 
effect  of  reducing  the  rent  paid  for  the  use 
of  land.  There  will  be  competition  among 
the  "owners"  of  sites  rather  than  among:  the 
users  of  sites." — W.  Chapman  Wright,  in 
"The  Westminster  Review,"  March,  1902. 


25— It  Will  Stop  the  Traffic  in  Speculate  Land 
Tallies  and  Tremendously  Increase  the  De- 
mand for  the  Products  of  Labor. 

It  is  a  common  belief  among  the  large  ma- 
jority of  men  that  the  presence  of  land  in  the 
market— that  is  to  say,  the  habitual  buying  and 
selling  of  land  values,  whether  mineral,  timber, 
waterpower,  agricultural,  urban,  or  public 
franchise— is  not  detrimental  to  the  interests 
of  producers— is,  in  fact,  a  "good  thing."  A 
more  terrible  mistake  has  never  been  made. 


For  of  all  the  factors  injurious  to  the  pro- 
ducers as  such,  that  of  the  traffic  in  land  val- 
ues is  the  most  destructive.  The  reason  is  sim- 
ple. When  men  buy  speculative  land  values 
they  furnish  employment  to  no  one,  for  land  is 
a  creation  of  nature.  It  does  not  have  to  be 
produced.  When  men  buy  other  things  than 
land,  such  as  food,  clothing,  shelter,  luxuries 
or  conveniences  of  any  kind,  they  furnish  em- 
ployment, in  varying  degrees,  to  every  laborer 
in  the  country.  For  unlike  land,  these  things 
must  be  made  by  labor  before  they  can  exist. 
Now,  since  "men  cannot  keep  their  cake 
and  eat  it  too,"  it  is  clear  that  the  higher  the 
price  of  the  land  they  buy,  the  less  they  will 
have  to  spend  for  the  products  of  labor,  while 
conversely,  the  lower  the  price  of  the  land 
they  purchase,  the  more  they  will  have  to 
spend  for  such  products.  It  follows,  therefore, 
that  if  the  selling  value  of  land  is  greatly  re- 
duced by  the  Single  Tax  method,  if  land  be 
made  cheap  to  men  so  there  is  no  necessity  for 
them  to  pay  great  sums  for  it,  they  will  not 
merely  enjoy  many  more  of  the  comforts  and 
luxuries  of  life,  but  the  demand  for  consump- 
tion will  be  tremendously  increased.  How 
much  larger  a  market  for  goods  than  already 
exists,  will  thus  be  created,  can  only  be  Im- 
agined. The  total  amount  of  land  of  all  kinds 
now  sold  in  the  United  States  each  year,  aver- 
ages, according  to  the  best  of  estimates,  fully 
$3,000,000,000  a  year.  Reducing  this  by  no 
more  than  one-half  and  the  new  market  that 
will  spring  into  existence  from  this  source 
alone  will  be  equal  to  thirteen  times  the  value 
of  all  the  goods  sold  to  the  countries  of  Asia  in 
1914;  twelve  times  the  value  of  all  the  goods 
sold  to  the  countries  of  South  America;  or 
equal  to  the  value  of  all  the  goods  exported  to 
all  the  countries  of  Europe  in  the  same  year. 


TAX  VIEWS  OP  THREE  GREAT  AMERICAN 
LABOR    LEADERS 

"The  Single  Tax  is  the  only  thing  that  has 
in  it  the  final  solution  of  our  industrial  prob- 
lems. It  is  the  only  thing  that  will  give  the 
working  man  a  chance,  and  to  Labor,  it» 
own." — Frank  P.  Walsh,  Former  Joint  Chair- 
man with  William  H.  Taft  of  the  National 
War  Labor  Board,  in  an  Address  in  Labor 
Temple,  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  November  6,  1912. 

"I  believe  in  the  Single  Tax.  I  count  it  a 
great  privilege  to  have  been  a  friend  of 
Henry  George  and  to  have  been  one  of  those 
who  helped  to  make  him  understood  in  New 
York  and  elsewhere." — Samuel  Gompers. 
President  American  Federation  of  Labor,  in 
an  Address  at  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  Dec.  1,  1913. 

39 


"With  the  Single  Tax  fully  realized*  there 
would  be  no  more  possibility  of  subjugating 
labor  and  monopolizing  business  with  paper 
agreements,  than  of  holding  back  the  water* 
of  Niagara  with  a  paper  dam." — Louis  F. 
Post,  Assistant  Secretary  of  Labor,  in  "Ethics 
of  Democracy,"  Part  IV,  p.  141. 

20— It  Will  Settle  for  All  Time  the  Perplexing 
Problem  of  Markets. 

Not  only,  however,  will  the  elimination  of 
speculative  land  values — from  public  franchises 
and  city  lots  to  agricultural  ground  and  timber 
rights, — prodigiously  enlarge  the  demand  for 
consumption,  but  the  greatly  reduced  prices 
that  will  result  from  the  Single  Tax,  will  oper- 
ate in  the  same  way.  Think  what  an  increase  in 
purchasing  power,  resulting  from  no  taxes  and 
lesser  rent,  and  amounting  at  least  to  $300  per 
family  each  year,  means  to  the  people.  More 
and  better  food,  more  and  finer  clothing,  more 
and  bigger  houses  to  live  in,  more  comforts 
and  luxuries,  more  trips  to  the  mountains  or 
the  sea  shore,  more  of  everything  that  makes 
life  worth  living.  Every  rural  district  and 
metropolitan  center  will  see  consumers  crowd- 
ing the  retail  houses.  The  retail  houses,  ex- 
hausted of  stock,  will  rush  the  wholesale  mer- 
chants; the  wholesale  merchants,  the  manu- 
facturers; the  manufacturers,  the  miners,  the 
lumbermen,  the  fishermen,  and  the  farmers. 
Every  wheel  of  industry  will  be  called  into 
play.  Every  producer — from  railroad  president 
to  messenger  boy — will  be  stimulated  to  activ- 
ity. No  longer  therefore  will  the  supply  of 
goods  exceed  the  demand,  but  the  demand  for 
goods  will  exceed  the  supply. 

Nor  is  there  the  least  danger  that  this  con- 
dition will  cease  until  all  human  wants  have 
been  satisfied.  For  so  long  as  economic  rent 
is  taken  for  public  purposes  and  the  fruits  of 
industry  remain  untaxed,  the  purchasing  ability 
that  will  be  given  to  consumers  from  the  very 
first,  will  not  diminish,  but  grow.  Every  in- 
crease in  productive  power  will  further  reduce 
prices,  while  land  and  fictitious  stock  specula- 
tion at  the  same  time  will  remain  lifeless. 

"The  adoption  of  the  principle  of  the  taxa- 
tion of  land  values  offers,  I  believe,  the  only 
means  of  reviving  trade,  the  only  means  of 
placing  industry  on  a  sound,  honest  and  per- 
manent footing." — Arthur  Withy,  in  "The 
Westminster  Review,"  June,  1895. 

"The  Single  Tax  would  give  all  men  an 
approximately  equal  chance  to  earn  a  living; 
«nd  it  is  the  only  remedy  yet  proposed  that 

40 


I*  at  all  likely  to  do  so."— T.  Scanlon,  in  "The 
Westminster   Review,"   December,    1905. 

"Effective  demand  for  goods  would  [under 
the  Single  Tax]  always  exceed  the  output." — 

Tom  L.  Johnson,  "My  Story,"  p.  155. 

PARTY 

27— it  Will  Eliminate  Involuntary  Unemploy- 
ment 

With  the  effective  demand  for  the  products 
and  services  of  labor  constantly  outstripping 
the  supply,  and  further,  with  natural  opportu- 
nities open  to  whoever  desires  to  use  them, 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  involuntary 
unemployment. 

"For  the  first  two  hundred  years  of  it* 
settlement  the  United  States  had  no  tramp 
at  the  edge  of  starvation.  Is  it  possible  foi 
us  to  reconstruct  the  economic  conditions 
which  existed  during:  these  first  two  hundred 
years?  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is.  ... 
Fifty-five  per  cent  of  the  arable  lands  are 
at  present  held  out  of  use.  .  .  .  Any  system 
of  taxation  whereby  land  values  were  taxed 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  would  be  unprofit- 
able to  keep  them  unused  would  bring  about 
this  desirable  condition." — William  C.  Gorgas, 
Surgeon-General,  U.  S.  A.,  [Ret.]  in  "The  Con- 
structive Quarterly,"  June,  1916. 

"The  taxation  of  land  values  would  tre- 
mendously increase  the  demand  for  labor. 
This  increase  in  the  demand  would  have  the 
snine  effect  upon  wages  as  a  decrease  in  the 
supply.  All  of  the  land  in  the  country  would 
seek  tenants  and  •workers.  Mines  would 
have  to  be  operated  to  meet  the  burdens  of 
taxation.  So  would  city  sites.  So  would 
farm*.  Almost  immediately  men  would  be 
masters  of  the  situation.  The  wage-earner 
would  find  his  nominal  wages  greatly  in- 
creased, and  the  price  of  all  the  necessities 
of  life  correspondingly  diminished." — Fred- 
eric C.  Howe,  Ex-Commissioner  of  Immigra- 
tion. "Privilege  and  Democracy  in  America," 
p.  281. 

28— It  Will  Kaise  the  True  Wages  of  Labor. 

The  price  of  labor,  like  the  price  of  every- 
thing else — wheat,  corn,  iron,  etc. — is  deter- 
mined by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  When 
labor  is  scarce,  wages  are  high;  when  labor 
is  plentiful,  wages  are  low.  Since  the  Single 
Tax  will  bring  about  a  permanent  condition  of 
more  jobs  than  men,  instead  of  as  now,  less 
jobs  than  men,  wages  will  not  merely  rise 
above  their  present  low  level,  but  they  will 
stay  there.  How  high  wages  will  go,  competi- 
tion, of  course,  only  can  determine.  The  limit 
will  not  be  reached,  however,  until  the  full 
value  of  the  goods  produced,  or  services  ren- 
dered, has  been  approached. 

41 


"Under  the  Single  Tax  jobs  would  be  hunt- 
ing for  men,  instead  of  men  hunting1  for  jobs. 
The  inevitable  effect  of  that  would  be  the 
dlsbandment  of  the  army  of  unemployed,  in- 
pendence  of  workmen." — Louis  F.  Post,  As- 
sistant Secretary  of  Labor,  "Ethics  of  De- 
mocracy," p.  139. 

"The  Single  Tax  .  .  .  will  at  once  place 
employers  and  employees  on  terms  of  equality 
and  enable  the  workers  to  demand  good 
wages  and  to  refuse  bad  wages,  and  thus 
establish  perfectly  equality  of  opportunity 
and  absolute  justice  for  all." — Arthur  H. 
Weller,  in  "The  Westminster  Review,"  No- 
vember, 1908. 

"A  tax  on  land  values  will  open  up  land 
freely  to  agricultural  production  in  all  its 
branched,  assuring  greatly  widened  oppor- 
tunities of  employment,  higher  wages,  and  re- 
duced cost  of  living." — R.  L.  Outhwaite, 
Member  Parliament,  England,  in  "Land 
Values,"  (London),  December,  1916. 

THE  TRUE  ROAD  TO  HIGHER  WAGES 


29— It  Will  Dispense  With  the  Need  of  Labor 
Organizations;  Abolish  Strikes,  Lockouts, 
Boycotts,  Riots,  and  Massacres  in  Industry. 

There  is  nothing  mysterious  about  labor 
unions,  or  strikes,  or  boycotts,  or  industrial 
wars.  Their  origin  is  perfectly  clear.  They 
are  the  inevitable  result  of  economic  injustice 
— of  wages  insufficient  to  maintain  a  decent 
standard  of  life,  of  excessive  hours  of  toil,  of 
needless  occupational  risks,  and  of  the  ruth- 
less exploitation  of  labor  by  monopoly  and  spe- 
cial privilege.  Under  the  Single  Tax,  however, 
these  conditions  will  pass  away.  Not  merely 
will  the  cost  of  living  be  lower  and  employment 
far  more  abundant,  but  wages  will  be  higher, 
will  be  equal  to  the  full  value  of  the  work  per- 
formed. There  will  thus  be  no  occasion  for  men 
to  strike  for  higher  pay  or  shorter  hours  of  toil, 
or  to  exercise  violence  in  any  way  in  securing 
economic  justice.  For  if  men  are  dissat- 
isfied with  the  terms  and  conditions  of  one 
employer  they  can  easily  and  quickly  go  to 
another.  Or,  if  working  for  others  does  not  ap- 

42 


peal  to  them,  then,  natural  opportunities  being 
equally  free  to  all,  they  can  conveniently  em- 
ploy themselves.  The  oppressive  power  of 
"capitalism,"  therefore,  will  be  gone.  Labor 
will  be  master  of  the  situation.  And  with  la- 
bor ruling  supreme  in  the  realm  of  industry, 
strikes,  lockouts,  boycotts,  riots,  and  industrial 
warfare,  will  pass  into  history. 

"With  the  release  of  all  industry  from  tax- 
ation .  .  .  such  an  era  of  general  pros- 
perity and  active  enterprise  would  ensue  that 
there  would  be  plenty  of  employment  for  all 
and  strikes  and  lockouts  would  cease." — 
Charles  E.  Benton,  in  "The  American  Journal 
of  Politics,"  April,  1893. 

"There  could  be  no  coercive  labor  unions 
[under  the  Single  Tax]  because  every  worker 
would  be  his  own  all-sufficient  union." — Tom 

L.  Johnson,  "My  Story,"  p.  155. 

"If  economic  rent  were  appropriated  by 
taxation,  there  would  be  no  occasion  for 
trade  unions,  and  working  men  would  no 
longer  be  required  In  self-defense  to  submit 
to  the  tyranny  of  labor  organizations.  .  .  . 
Walking  delegates,  strikes  and  boycotts, 
would  be  unheard  of." — Henry  F.  Ring,  "The 
Problem  of  the  Unemployed,"  p.  237. 

"American  laborers  would  then  think  no 
more  of  organizing  against  'capital,'  as  Priv- 
ilege is  mistakenly  called,  than  they  would 
think  of  organizing  against  a  race  of  men 
whose  only  records  are  a  few  scattered  ruin* 
and  picture  writings  engraved  on  fragments 
of  stone.  Strikes  and  lockouts,  sweeping  en- 
Joining  orders  and  the  glisten  of  bayonets  in 
industrial  affairs  would  belong  to  a  past  and 
forgotten  age/* — Henry  George,  Jr.,  "The 
Menace  of  Privilege,"  p.  412. 

"The  so-called  conflict  between  capital  and 
labor  is  at  bottom  a  conflict  between  capital 
and  labor  on  the  one  hand  and  the  owners 
of  opportunities  on  the  other." — Prof.  John 
R.  Commons,  "The  Distribution  of  Wealth," 
p.  249. 

"Nothing  else  [than  the  Single  Tax]  is 
needed  to  acompllsh  the  emancipation  of  the 
workers  and  all  schemes  for  organizing  per- 
sons and  things  in  which  the  soul  of  the 
Socialist  delights  are,  insofar  as  they  restrict 
Individual  liberty,  unnecessary  and  mis- 
chievous."— Arthur  H.  Wheeler  ,in  "The  West- 
minster Review,"  November,  1908. 

"Tax  the  social  value  of  land  and  .  .  . 
there  would  be  no  need  for  labor  legislation, 
for  if  the  land  is  kept  in  competition  for 
labor  in  a  free  market,  as  under  natural  tax- 
ation it  would  inevitably  IK-,  wages,  hours, 
and  conditions  of  labor  would  regulate  them- 
selves automatically." — Albert  J.  Nock,  in 
"The  American  Magazine,"  November,  1912. 

43 


80— It  Will  Check  the  Growth  of  Syndicalism, 
Bolshevism,  Communism,  Anarchism,  and 
Similar  Revolutionary  Movements. 

Like  strikes  and  violent  conflicts  in  industry, 
so  are  all  revolutionary  movements,  such  as 
syndicalism,  anarchism,  and  bolshevism,  the 
logical  fruits  of  economic  injustice,  and  must 
necessarily  disappear  when  such  injustice  has 
been  removed. 

"The  Single  Tax  will  do  away  with  the 
violent  movements  where  passion  and  bitter- 
ness are  threatening  the  social  order,  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  I.  W.  W.  revolt  and  the 
like." — Robert  D.  Towne,  in  "The  Aero,"  No- 
vember, 1917. 

"I  am  afraid  that  people  will  regard  what 
I  say  as  stupid,  but  I  must  say  it:  The  lead- 
ers of  the  revolutionary  movement,  as  well 
as  the  government  officials,  are  not  doing  the 
only  thing  that  would  pacify  the  people  at 
once.  And  the  only  thing  that  would  pacify 
the  people  now  is  the  introduction  of  the  sys- 
tem of  Henry  George." — Count  Leo  N.  Tol- 
stoy, Russia.  Quoted  by  Herman  Bernstein 
in  the  "New  York  Times,"  July  20,  1908. 

"The  truth  in  the  Single  Tax  doctrine  i» 
•worth  following,'.  It  is  worth  living  for,  and 
if  need  be,  dying  for.  It  is  a  truth  that  will 
make  men  free.  It  will  make  them  inde- 
pendent. It  will  make  them  lords  of  their 
own  destinies,  masters  of  their  own  fortunes." 
— Warren  Worth  Bailey,  Ex-Congressman 
from  Pennsylvania,  in  an  Address  Before  the 
42nd  Annual  Conference  on  Charities  and  Cor- 
rections, Baltimore,  Md.,  May  15,  1915. 

51— It  Will  Clear  the  Channels  of  the  Monetary 
System. 

Strange  though  it  may  appear,  the  removal 
of  all  taxation  from  banks,  banking  equipment, 
money,  and  all  instruments  of  credit,  will  do 
more  to  settle  the  currency  question  in  the 
United  States  than  any  other  act  which  is  a 
legislative  possibility.  For  money  is  to  com- 
merce and  industry  what  blood  is  to  the  human 
body.  If  its  freest  circulation  is  retarded  or 
restricted,  industry  will  suffer  just  as  the 
human  body  will  suffer  when  the  flow  of 
blood  is  shut  off. 

Now,  the  effect  of  the  taxation  of  banks  and 
money  is  like  the  effect  of  the  taxation  of 
every  other  product  of  labor — it  tends  to  make 
banks  and  money  scarce  and  consequently 
dear.  This  principle  holds  good  in  towns  and 
cities  as  well  as  anywhere  else,  but  if  we  would 
see  the  working  of  it  in  all  its  baldness,  we 
must  go  to  the  agricultural  districts.  Here 
the  transactions  being  comparatively  small  in 

44 


size  and  few  in  number,  the  legitimate  banking 
business  is  not  a  get-rich-quick  scheme  at  any 
time,  and  when  heavily  taxed  by  the  farmers,  as 
it  invariably  is,  it  is  distinctly  unprofitable. 
The  result  is  that  an  incorporated  bank  in  the 
rural  communities,  capable  of  lending  money 
profitably  to  the  farmers  at  from  3  to  8  per 
cent,  is  rarely  found.  The  further  result  is 
that  farmers  wanting  credit  or  loans,  are  com- 
pelled to  appeal  to  local  storekeepers  or 
money  lenders,  who,  because  of  their  ineffi- 
ciency, their  lack  of  facilities,  and  the  great 
risk  and  expense  involved  in  assuming  the 
function  of  bankers,  must  charge  their  patrons 
anywhere  from  10  to  60  per  cent!  In  the 
southwestern  states,  for  example  where  legiti- 
mate bankers  have  never  been  able  to  pene- 
trate the  rural  districts,  simply  because  of  the 
crushing  taxes  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
farmers  themselves,  the  Federal  Commission 
on  Industrial  Relations,  in  its  investigation 
of  agricultural  conditions  in  1915  (See  Final 
Report,  p.  129),  found: 

"The  average  interest  rate  on  all  farm  loans 
is  10  per  cent.,  while  small  tenants  in  Texas 
pay  15  per  cent  or  more.  In  Oklahoma  the 
conditions  are  even  worse,  in  spite  of  the  en- 
actment of  laws  against  usury.  Furthermore, 
over  80  per  cent,  of  the  tenants  are  regularly 
in  debt  to  the  stores  from  which  they  secure 
their  supplies,  and  pay  exorbitantly  for  this 
credit.  The  average  rate  of  interest  on  store 
credit  is  conservatively  put  at  20  per  cent,  and 
in  many  cases  as  high  as  60  per  cent." 

Until  people  abandon  the  shortsighted  policy 
of  taxing  banks,  deposits,  notes,  mortgages, 
and  other  instruments  of  credit  and  exchange, 
"cheap"  and  plentiful  money  is  a  financial 
impossibility. 

"The  adaption  of  natural  [Single]  taxation 
would  solve  the  American  currency  problem, 
by  opening  banks  of  deposit  in  every  nook 
and  corner,  free  of  taxation;  thus  giving  to 
every  farmer  precisely  the  same  facilities  for 
exchange  as  are  enjoyed  by  the  wealthiest 
merchant  or  manufacturer,  and  making  a 
large  supply  of  either  coin  or  notes  super- 
fluous."— Thomas  G.  Shearman,  "Natural  Tax- 
ation," p.  222. 

32— It    Will    Prevent    Panics    and    Industrial 
Depressions. 

"A  financial  panic,"  says  Henry  F.  Ring 
("Problem  of  the  Unemployed,"  p.  97),  occurs 
as  follows: 

"When,  after  a  period  of  dull  times,  one  of 
comparative  prosperity  arises,  and  many  peo- 
ple begin  to  'save  money/  much  of  the  wealth 

45 


which  thus  accumulates  is  naturally  invested 
in  land.  It  goes  into  city  and  town  lots,  and 
farming  lands,  and  into  stocks  and  securities 
based  in  large  part  on  the  ownership  of  land, 
including  the  ownership  of  mineral  deposits, 
and  the  riglits-of-way  and  immensely  valuable 
terminals  of  railroads,  and  privileges  enjoyed 
by  public  utility  companies.  Stocks  based  on 
land  begin  once  more  to  slowly  increase  in 
price,  as  more  and  more  wealth  accumulates 
to  be  invested  in  something  from  which  ulti- 
mate gain  or  a  permanent  revenue  can  be 
derived.  Soon  prices  begin  to  advance  more 
rapidly.  This  renders  such  investments  at- 
tractive from  a  speculative  and  gambling  point 
of  view,  and  prices  advance  with  greater  and 
greater  rapidity.  This  stimulates  further  in- 
vestment and  prices  advance  still  niors  rapidly, 
and  go  still  higher  and  higher.  After  awhile 
a  speculative  craze  takes  hold  of  many  peo- 
ple, and  the  prices  often  reach  the  point  at 
which  it  is  impossible  for  employers  to  reap 
any  reward  in  connection  with  new  enterprises 
upon  vacant  lands,  after  payment  of  prevailing 
rates  of  interest  on  the  amount  required  in 
purchasing  them.  It  is  invariably  the  case, 
just  before  the  "boom"  bursts  and  the  panic 
begins,  that  the  natural  opportunities  for  em- 
ployment, such  as  the  vacant  farming  lands 
referred  to  as  held  at  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  per  acre,  the  unused  factory  sites,  min- 
eral deposits  and  water  fronts,  the  idle  busi- 
ness and  residence  lots,  all  become  so  dear, 
and  so  much  wealth  is  demanded  for  the  mere 
privilege  of  using  them,  that  capital  sees  no 
profit  in  giving  employment  to  labor  in  con- 
nection with  them.  Meantime,  the  laboring 
population  is  naturally  increasing.  Surplus 
labor  resulting  from  such  increase  can  only 
obtain  work  in  connection  with  these  unused 
lands,  which  are  held  at  prohibitive  prices. 
And  rents  also  advance  in  sympathy  with  the 
increase  in  land  values.  The  householder  and 
business  man  are  required  to  pay  more  and 
more  to  the  landlord,  and  the  longer  the 
"boom"  lasts,  the  higher  and  higher  is  the 
amount  of  tribute  which  the  land  owner  de- 
mands. Finally,  when  the  burden  upon  wealth- 
producing  enterprises  can  be  borne  no  longer, 
when  prices  charged  for  wealth-producing  op- 
portunities have  been  so  inflated  that  future 
valuations  can  be  no  longer  discounted  even 
in  the  mind  of  the  most  credulous  and  optimis- 
tic of  speculators,  the  crash  comes.  It  usually 
comes  suddenly,  but  it  may  come  gradually. 

46 


Its  coming  under  existing  conditions  is  as  inev- 
itable after  a  period  of  prosperity  as  the  com- 
ing of  winter  after  summer." 

The  moral  is  plain.  Destroy  the  gambling 
value  of  natural  opportunities  so  that  "booms" 
in  real  estate  and  fictitious  stocks  and  bonds 
cannot  take  place,  and  recurring  panics  and 
industrial  depressions,  will  soon  be  among  the 
things  that  were. 

"There  In  hut  one  cure  for  recurring  busi- 
ness depression.  There  In  no  other.  That 
is  the  Single  Tax — the  abolition  of  all  taxes 
on  the  employment  and  produce  of  labor  and 
the  taking  of  economic  or  ground  rent  for 
the  use  of  the  community  by  taxes  levied  on 
the  value  of  land,  irrespective  of  improve- 
ment."— Henry  George,  "Our  Land  and  Land 
Policy,"  p.  331. 

33— It  Will  Remedy  the  Tariff  Problem. 

Under  the  Single  Tax  there  will  be  no  tariff 
problem  to  monopolize  the  attention  of  legis- 
lators and  annoy  the  people  because  there  will 
be  no  tariff.  The  customs  houses  will  be  gone. 
Trade  will  be  free. 

"With  the  inauguration  of  this  system  of 
[Single]  taxation  .  .  .  the  fallacies  of 
Protection  would  cease  to  charm  men's  ears 
and  disturb  their  understanding,  and  true 
Free  Trade,  which  means  freedom  to  produce 
ns  well  as  freedom  to  exchange,  would  neces- 
sarily be  established  as  the  only  equitable 
policy." — Lewis  H.  Berens,  "Toward  the 
Light,"  p.  208. 

34 — It  Will  Remedy  the  Immigration  Problem. 

During  the  first  two  hundred  years 
of  American  colonization  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  an  immigration  problem  simply  be- 
cause land  was  cheap,  work  plentiful,  and 
wages  always  high.  The  Single  Tax  will  per- 
manently restore  these  conditions  and  in  doing 
so  will  necessarily  dispose  of  the  immigration 
problem. 

"The  problem  of  immigration  is  not  n 
problem  of  people;  it  is  a  problem  of  land. 
.  .  .  The  Single  Tax  will  solve  the  land 
problem.  And  it  alone  will  solve  the  immi- 
gration problem." — Frederic  C.  Howe,  Ex- 
Commissioner  of  Immigration,  in  "The  Sin- 
gle Tax  Year  Book,"  pp.  257,  258. 

35_It  will  Stimulate  Enormously  the  Produc- 
tion of  Wealth. 

The  destruction  of  land  monopoly,  the 
opening  up  of  natural  opportunities  to  capital 
and  labor,  together  with  the  abolition  of  all 
taxation  upon  the  fruits  of  human  effort,  which 

47 


now  bears  down,  like  a  brake  on  a  wheel,  upon 
every  joint  of  the  industrial  mechanism,  will 
alone  give  a  tremendous  impetus  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth.  But  this  is  not  all.  More 
important  still  in  enlarging  the  annual  volume 
of  wealth  will  be  the  indirect  results  of  the 
new  economic  adjustment — the  elimination  of 
strikes,  lockouts,  and  industrial  violence;  the 
virtual  disappearance  of  robberies,  incendiar- 
ism, and  other  crimes  against  property  now 
committed  by  the  disinherited  and  oppressed 
masses;  the  addition  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  industrial  parasites  to  the  national  working 
force;  the  prevention  of  wholesale  sickness 
and  disease;  the  lengthening  of  the  span  of 
human  life;  and  especially  the  much  greater 
intelligence,  inventiveness,  and  efficiency  of  all 
the  working  people.  These,  all  combined,  will 
add  a  wealth-producing  power  to  labor  such 
as  the  world  has  never  known. 

"By  removing  taxes  from  commodities,  from 
all  of  the  products  of  labor  and  capital,  a 
mighty  impulse  would  be  given  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth." — L.  F.  C.  Garvin,  Ex-Gov- 
ernor of  Rhode  Island,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Re- 
view," January-February,  1917. 

"To  abolish  the  taxation  which,  acting  and 
reacting,  now  hampers  every  wheel  of  ex- 
change and  presses  upon  every  form  of  in- 
dustry, would  be  like  removing  an  immense 
weight  from  a  powerful  spring.  Imbued  \vith 
fresh  energy,  production  would  start  into 
new  life,  and  trade  would  receive  a  stimulus 
which  would  be  felt  to  the  remotest  arteries." 
— Henry  George,  "Progress  and  Poverty," 
Book  IX,  Chap.  I. 

"Everywhere  [under  the  Single  Tax]  Im- 
provements and  production  will  be  encour- 
aged."— Josiah  C.  Wedgwood,  Member  Par- 
liament, England,  in  "The  Westminster  Re- 
view," February,  1908. 

"The  Single  Tax  would  stimulate  every 
branch  of  industry  except  the  industry  of 
holding  vacant  land  out  of  use;  this  would 
be  killed." — Judson  Grenell,  "The  Single  Tax," 
p.  3. 

"The  adoption  of  natural  [Single]  taxation 
•would  remove  all  shackles  from  commerce, 
trade,  manufactures,  agriculture,  and  indus- 
try of  every  kind,  giving  them  a  stimulus 
•nch  as  they  have  never  known." — Thomas  G. 
Shearman,  "Natural  Taxation,"  p.  223. 

"Taxes  on  the  full  monopoly  value  of  land 
must  stimulate  production,  for  land  not  used, 
and  land  undor-used,  will  be  forced  by  the 
tax  into  use." — Francis  Neilson,  "The  Old 
Freedom,"  p.  171. 

"How  can  production  be  increased?  That 
is  easy.  Free  the  two  sources  of  production. 
What  are  those  two  sources?  L>and  and  labor. 


Get  the  land  Into  use.  Unfenee  the  heltl-out 
earth.  Release  all  the  natural  resources  to 
development.  And  remove  all  taxes  upon  all 
the  forms  of  Industry  necessary  to  produc- 
tion There  is  no  other  way  of  la- 
creasing  production  In  the  volume  that  will 
be  necessary  for  the  future,  and  only  In  this 
way  can  the  worker  be  assured  of  getting; 
the  full  value  of  his  labor."— William  Marion 
Reedy,  in  "Reedy's  Mirror,"  Aug.  7,  1919. 

"The  removal  of  taxes  from  productive 
business  and  the  imposition  of  taxes  upon 
the  privilege  of  holding  land  will  cause  the 
best  use  of  the  best  land,  because  such  pro- 
cedure will  brins  the  greatest  reward.  It 
will  pay.  It  will  be  sound  business.  And 
sound  business  policy  is  the  only  policy  that 
will  develop  the  greatest  national  strength." 
— Extract  from  "Unscrambled  Industry,"  a 
pamphlet  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Manu- 
facturers and  Merchants  on  Federal  Taxa- 
tion," 1346  Altgeld  St.,  Chicago,  111. 

PART  VI 
36— It  Will  Abolish   Involuntary   Poverty. 

Poverty— that  is  to  say  INVOLUNTARY  and 
UNDESERVED  poverty— cannot  exist  when 
each  man  is  given,  not  merely  every  opportu- 

THE     LORD     GIVETH     AND     THE     LANDLORD 
TAKETH    AWAY 


— Courtesy   of    "The    United   Committee    for    the 
Taxation  of  Land  Values,"  London. 

nity  to  secure  steady  employment  at  whatever 
occupation  he  is  best  fitted  for,  but  also  is 
awarded  the  full  product  of  his  toil. 

49 


THE   RESULT 


— Courtesy   of   the   Newark   Evening   News. 


"The  purpose  of  the  Single  Tax  Is  much 
more  than  a  mere  fiscal  reform  in  the  method 
of  raising  public  revenues.  When  fully  ap- 
plied it  will  abolish  land  speculation  and  in- 
voluntary poverty." — W.  S.  U'Ren  in  "The 
Annals  of  The  American  Academy,"  March, 
1915. 

"Poverty  can  be  abolished  by  destroying 
its  cause — lund  monopoly — and  the  Single 
Tax  is  the  easiest  method  by  which  this  re- 
sult can  be  accomplished." — Daniel  Kiefer,  in 
"The  Single  Tax  Review,"  January-February, 
1915. 

"That  the  appropriation  of  the  rental  value 
of  land  to  public  uses  in  the  form  of  a  tax 
would  .  .  .  abolish  involuntary  poverty, 
la  clear." — The  Rev.  Edward  McGlynn,  in  His 
Doctrinal  Statement  Presented  to  the  Au- 
thorities of  The  Church  of  Rome,  1892. 

"Banishing  as  It  [the  Single  Tax]  would, 
not  only  poverty,  but  the  fear  of  poverty,  it 
must  have  such  further  and  far-reaching  re- 
sults upon  the  higher  and  better  develop- 
ment of  the  race,  that  from  our  present  lim- 
ited outlook  appear  too  idealistic  to  be  pos- 
sible."— Andrew  Scott,  in  "The  Westminster 
Review,"  October,  1906. 

"If  we  would  solve  the  poverty  problem  we 
must  untax  labour  and  capital  and  tax  land 
values — we  must  untax  trade  and  industry 
and  tax  instead  monopoly  and  privileges." — 

Edward   McHugh,    in    "The   Westminster   Re- 
view," May,  1907. 

"To  exterminate  involuntary  poverty,  work- 
ers of  every  station  and  of  whatever  occupa- 
tion must  secure  the  values  which  they  create 
and  produce.  .  .  .  The  only  effective 

50 


method  of  doing;  thin  1*  to  tax  ground  rent* 
Into  the  public  treasury  and  than  relieve  the 
workers  of  the  burdensome  tuxes  now  levied 
npon  them." — F.  C.  Leubuscher,  "Proceedings 
of  The  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction,"  p.  536  (1915). 

"The  Single  Tax  cause  in  the  cause  of 
Christ  and  of  His  disinherited  brethren.  .  .  . 
It  is  the  only  remedy  for  involuntary  pov- 
erty.*'— John  Bagot,  in  "The  Westminster 
Review,"  October,  1909. 

37_It  Will  Solve  the  Child  Labor  Problem. 

"Involuntary  poverty  underlies  child  labor 
just  as  it  underlies  all  our  national  ills/' — 

"Children  in  Bondage"  (p.  274),  by  Edwin 
Markham,  Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  and  George 
Creel. 

"The  phenomenon  of  child  labor,  is  the  in- 
evitable accompaniment  of  low  wages,  and 
low  wage»  result  from  a  condition  of  land 
monopoly  which  the  Single  Tax  will  destroy." 

— Joseph  Dana  Miller,  in  "The  Single  Tax 
Year  Book,"  p.  246. 

38— It  WU1   Stop  the  Exploitation  of  Female 
Labor. 

"The  entrance  of  women  as  wage  earners 
into  modern  factory,  mercantile,  and  other 
mechanical  establishments  and  offices,"  says 
the  United  States  Public  Health  Bulletin,  No. 
76  (p.  28),  "is  a  factor  *  *  *  largely,  If 
not  entirely  due  to  economic  pressure.  Accord- 
ing to  the  census  of  1910,  of  the  8,000,000 
women  ordinarily  termed  'women  in  industry,' 
nearly  37  per  cent.,  or  about  3,000,000  are  en- 
gaged in  various  occupations  in  stores,  mills, 
and  factories.  Practically  every  investigation 
of  the  reasons  for  the  entrance  of  women  into 
industry  has  shown  that  their  presence  in 
industrial  occupations  is  almost  wholly  in 
response  to  the  necessity  for  earning  a  living." 

"Such  questions  as  women  competing:  with 
men  for  employment,  shorter  hours  of  labor, 
equal  pay  for  equal  work,  are  but  phases  of 
the  grreat  land  question.  .  .  .  Settle  this 
question  and  labor  everywhere  will  receive 
Its  full  reward." — Eliza  Stowe  Twitchell,  In 
"The  Arena,"  October,  1894. 

"There  will  disappear  [under  the  Single 
Tax]  child  labor,  and  the  labor  of  married 
women  in  factories,  while  such  employment 
for  unmarried  women  would  either  be  more 
and  more  shunned  or  would  be  carried  on 
under  grreatly  improved  conditions.  Fathers 
and  husbands,  in  receipt  of  ample  wagres, 
would  as  little  think  of  sending;  their  wives 
and  children  into  factories  as  do  the  mem- 
bers of  the  middle  class  now;  and  parents 
•would  not  allow  their  g;rown-np  daughters 
to  work  there  except  for  short  hours  and  in 
the  absence  of  adequate  household  labor."— 
Max  Hirsch,  "Democracy  Versus  Socialism," 
p.  401. 

51 


89— It  Will  Dispose  of  the  Illiteracy  Question. 

There  are  5,516,163  illiterates  over  ten  years 
of  age  in  the  United  States — a  number  prac- 
tically as  large  as  the  entire  population  of 
the  six  New  England  states.  Furthermore,  of 
the  19,693,007  children  from  five  to  eighteen 
years  of  age,  actually  enrolled  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  nation,  a  large  majority  never 
even  get  out  of  the  lower  grades.  What  is 
the  reason?  There  is  but  one  answer — 
POVERTY.  Says  the  Federal  Commission  on 
Industrial  Relations  (Final  Report,  p.  12) : 

"Statistics  show  that  only  one-third  of  the 
children  in  our  public  schools  complete  the 
grammar  school  course,  and  less  than  10  per 
cent,  finish  high  school.  Those  who  leave  are 
almost  entirely  the  children  of  the  workers, 
who,  as  soon  as  they  reach  working  age,  are 
thrown,  immature,  ill-trained,  and  with  no 
practical  knowledge,  into  the  complexities  of 
industrial  life.  In  each  of  four  industrial 
towns  studied  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics, more  than  75  per  cent,  of  the  children  quit 
school  before  reaching  the  seventh  grade." 

"Two  hundred  thousand  dollars  dedicated 
to  the  establishment  of  the  Single  Tax  would 
do  more  for  the  human  race  than  $20O,OOO,OOO 
directed  to  the  education  of  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  community  in  whatever  way  the 
sum  were  expended." — Hon.  L.  F.  Garvin,  Ex- 
Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  in  "The  Arena," 
July,  1906. 

40— It  Will  Diminish  Crime  and  Wipe  Out  Com- 
mercialized  Tice. 

That  numerous  types  of  crime,  such  as  bur- 
glary, larceny,  forgery,  arson,  murder,  suicide, 
etc.,  owe  their  origin  primarily  to  want  and 
the  fear  of  want,  and  will  diminish  or  dis- 
appear when  these  ills  are  eradicated,  has  long 
been  recognized.  But  the  same  may  be  said 
of  various  kinds  of  vice — particularly  prostitu- 
tion. The  Senate  Vice  Committee  of  the  Illi- 
nois Legislature,  for  instance,  reports: 

"First — That  poverty  is  the  principal  cause, 
direct  and  indirect,  of  prostitution. 

"Second — That  thousands  of  girls  are  driven 
into  prostitution  because  of  the  sheer  inability 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together  on  the  low 
wages  received  by  them. 

"Third — That  thousands  of  girls  are  forced 
into  industrial  employment  by  the  low  wages 
received  by  their  fathers;  that  they  are  sepa- 
rated from  proper  home  influences  at  an  exces- 
sively early  age;  that  they  are  inadequately 

52 


schooled  and  are  insufficiently  protected;  and 
tbat  many  of  them  become  recruits  for  the  sys- 
tem of  prostitution." 

•The  abolition  of  nil  taxation  .  .  .  would 
cut  more  of  the  tap-roots  of  poverty,  vice, 
and  social  unrest  than  any  other  progres- 
sive step  which  is  a  legislative  possibility." — 

Charles  T.  Root,  in  "The  American  City," 
July,  1913. 

"When  the  full  rental  value  of  land  la 
taken  by  taxation  ...  the  hideous  traffic 
in  women,  based  in  almost  every  white  slave 
cane  upon  the  pressure  of  poverty,  will 
cease." — Alfred  Bishop  Mason,  in  "The 
Forum,"  August,  1914. 

__"The  Single  Tax  will  surely  put  the  wom- 
en to  a  more  independent  economic  status 
and  so  far  remedy  the  white  slave  evil  and 
reduce  all  that  measure  of  prostitution  which 
is  due  to  low  wages,  social  depression  and 
smothered  instincts  among;  the  -workers  of 
the  land." — Robert  D.  Towne,  in  "The  Areo,' 
November,  1917. 

"If  by  taking  economic  rent  for  public 
purposes  we  release  idle  land  and  at  the 
same  time  encourage  industry  by  the  removal 
of  taxes  .  .  .  the  vice  and  crime  which 
springs  from  the  slums  as  naturally  as  dis- 
ease will  be  checked  at  their  source." — F.  W. 
Garrison,  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly,"  Decem- 
ber, 1913. 

"We  believe  land  value  taxation  would 
usher  in  industrial  conditions  in  which  want 
and  the  fear  of  want,  poverty  and  its  at- 
tendant evils  of  vice,  disease,  and  crime, 
would  rapidly  disappear." — "The  Taxation  of 
Land  Values,"  p.  17.  A  Pamphlet  Distributed 
by  the  Joseph  Fels  Fund  Commission  and 
signed  by — 

Lincoln  Steffens, 
Jackson    H.    Ralston, 
Frederic   C.   Howe, 
George  A.   Briggs, 
C.   H.   Ingersoll, 
Daniel    Kiefer, 
A.  B.  DuPont. 

41— It  Will  Promote  Sobriety. 

"The  drink  habit  may  be  the  cnuae  of  many 
miseries,  but  it  is,  in  turn,  the  effect  of  other 
and  prior  miseries.  The  temperance  advo- 
cates may  preach  their  hearts  out  over  the 
evils  of  drink,  but  until  the  evils  that  cause 
people  to  drink  are  abolished,  drink  and  its 
evils  will  remain." — Jack  London,  "The  Peo- 
ple of  the  Abyss,"  p.  305. 

I  see  in  the  proposal  of  Henry  George  to 
appropriate  the  rent  of  ground  by  taxation, 
"an  effort  to  establish  a  principle  which,  when 
established,  will  do  more  to  lift  humanity 
from  the  slough  of  poverty,  crime  and  mis- 
ery than  all  else;  and  in  this  I  recognize  as 
one  of  the  greatest  forces  working  for  tem- 
perance and  morality." — Miss  Frances  B.  Wil- 

68 


lard,  in  a  Letter  to  The  Chicago  Question 
Club,  September,  1894.  Cited  by  Oliver  R. 
Trowbridge  in  "Bisocialism."  Chap.  45. 

"When  the  full  rental  value  of  land  is 
taken  by  taxation  .  .  .  drunkenness,  which  i» 
caused  by  poverty  more  often  than  it  causes 
poverty,  will  cease  to  defile  our  civilization." 
— Alfred  Bishop  Mason,  in  "The  Forum," 
August,  1914. 

"Do  we  desire  purity  and  truth  instead  of 
corruption  and  perjury  to  prevail?  Then  re- 
peal all  taxes  on  industry,  and  let  the  mo- 
nopolists of  land,  the  source  of  our  living  and 
the  rightful  inheritance  of  all,  pay  taxes  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  what  they  mo- 
nopolize, then  poverty,  prostitution,  intem- 
perance, will  soon  be  among  the  things  that 
were." — Edwin  Burgess,  Forerunner  of  Henry 
George,  in  The  Racine  Advocate,  1859. 

42— It  Will  Decrease  the  Desertion  of  Wives 
and  Infants. 

"If  wage  workers,"  says  Judge  Henry  Neil. 
originator  of  the  Mothers'  Pension  System, 
"bad  income  sufficient  to  provide  a  decent 
house  and  other  necessities,  there  would  be 
few  desertions.  But  low  wages  force  the  family 
into  little  rat-trap  habitations. 

"It  is  unnatural  for  men  to  leave  their  own 
offspring,  and  when  a  large  number  of  men 
are  committing  this  unnatural  act,  we  must 
conclude  that  there  is  some  strong  compulsion. 
I  have  found  this  compulsion,  and  as  long  as 
low  wages  continue  we  will  have  desertions 
and  all  the  courts  and  jails  in  the  world  will 
not  reform  the  situation." 

•This  putting  land  out  of  the  reach  of 
speculators  by  taking  their  profits  for  pub- 
lic expenses  and  throwing  it  into  use  by 
untaxing  all  products  of  toil,  goes  to  the 
root  of  all  present  maladies  and  restores 
the  true  relation  of  man  to  the  earth." — 
Lona  I.  Robinson,  in  "The  Arena,"  October, 
1894. 

43_It  Will   Check   the  Increase   of  Insanity. 

"Every  one  who  ponders  on  the  primary 
causes  of  disease,  of  vice,  of  alcoholism,  of 
feeble-mindedness,  every  one,  who,  in  other 
words,  brings  his  scientific  imagination  as 
well  as  his  scientific  knowledge  to  bear  upon 
this  problem,  is  finally  forced  into  the  con- 
viction that  underneath  all  obvious  and  im- 
mediate causes  there  lies  one  great,  general 
and  determining  social  cause  —  Poverty. 
.  .  .  Until  recently,  poverty  was  looked  upon 
as  a  divine  dispensation — a  natural  phenom- 
enon, as  unavoidable  as  the  tides  or  the  pro- 
cession of  the  equinoxes.  .  .  .  But  the  world 
is  now  slowly  turning  more  and  more  to  the 
conviction  that  the  persistence  of  poverty 
amid  abounding  wealth  is  due  neither  to  the 
insufficiency  of  nature,  nor  to  the  incompe- 
tence of  man,  but  that  it  is  due  to  some  sub- 
tle and  hitherto  little  recognized  force  oper- 
ating within  our  social  system.  .  .  .  What 
this  subtle  force  is  and  how  it  operates  to 
distribute  unjustly  the  great  mass  of  wealth 
produced,  we  believe,  has  been  clearly  indi- 
cated in  the  writings  of  Henry  George." 

Victor  C.  Vaughan,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Jacques  Loeb,  M.D.,  Ph.D. 

Aristides   Agramonte,   M.D. 

William  T.  Councilman,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

John  Rogers,  M.D. 

Frederick   Peterson,   M.D.,   Ph.D. 

Albert  P.  Brubaker,  M.D. 

54 


S.   Solis   Cohen,    M.D. 

S.  Adolphus  Knopf,  M.  D. 

Henry   Smith   Williams,   M.D.,   L.L.D. 

Walter  Mendelson,   M.D. 

Frederic  C.   Howe,   Ph.D. 

Thomas  Mott  Osborne. 

George   Foster   Peabody,   LL.D. 

Louis  F.  Post. 

John    J.    Murphy. 

Charles  A.  Downer,   Ph.D. 

George  H.  Parker,  S.B. 

Charles  W.  Killam,  A.I.A. 

Comfort   A.   Adams,   S.B.,   E.E. 

H.  E.  Clifford,  S.B. 

Arthur  T.   Safford. 

Lionel  S.  Marks,  M.M.E. 

— From  "Two  Papers  on  Public  Sanitation 
and  the  Single  Tax,"  Published  by  the  Single 
Tax  Information  Bureau,  90  West  Street,  New 
York  City. 

44— It  Will  Stop  OYerwork. 

"The  present  working  day,  from  a  physi- 
ological standpoint,  is  too  lone,  and  keep* 
the  majority  of  men  and  women  in  a  con- 
tinual state  of  over-fatigue.  It  starts  a 
vicious  circle,  leading  to  the  craving  of  means 
for  deadening  fatigue,  thus  inducing  drunk- 
enness and  other  excesses." — Prof.  Irving 
Fisher,  "National  Vitality;  Its  Wastes  and 
Conservation." 

"When  -we  learn  that  the  land  belong*  to 
all  of  us,  then  \ve  will  be  free  men — no  need 
for  labor  unions  then,  no  need  to  legislate  to 
keep  men  and  women  from  working  them- 
selves to  death;  no  need  to  legislate  against 
the  white  slave  traffic." — Clarence  Darrow. 
Cited  by  F.  C.  Leubusher  in  "Proceedings  of 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection" (1915),  p.  537. 

45— It  Will  Improye  Sanitation. 


WIL.L.IAM      C.      GORGAS      ON      SANITATION 

(A  letter  quoted  by  Dr.  Seward  W.  Williams 
of  Chicago,  in  the  "Journal  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association,"  March,  1916.) 

WAR  DEPARTMENT 
Office    of    the    Surgeon-General 

Washington,    July    3,    1015. 
Mr.  Seward  W.  Williams, 

5415   Hyde  Park   Boulevard, 

Chicago,  Illinois. 
Dear  Mr.  Williams: 

Yours  of  June  the  twenty-eighth  is  acknow- 
ledged. 

I  was  very  thoroughly  impressed  in  my  san- 
itary work  with  the  evil  effects  upon  the  gen- 
eral health  of  the  community  which  our  jires- 
cnt  system  of  taxation  causes.  In  both  Cuba 
and  Panama,  American  occupation  was  at 
once  followed  by  a  large  increase  of  wages. 
This  was  at  once  followed  by  very  much  bet- 
ter living  conditions  among  the  poorer  class- 
es, and,  therefore,  very  much  improved  sani- 
tary conditions.  In  considering  these  in- 
stances, I  was  impressed  by  the  fact  that  low- 
wages  were  due  to  there  not  being  enough 
Jobs  to  go  around  and  that,  therefore,  the 
wage-earners  were  forced  to  bid  against  each 
other  for  these  Jobs.  I  cnn  see  that  a  tax  on 
land  values  would  tend  to  everywhere  bring 
the  large  body  of  unused  lands  into  use.  This 
would  furnish  abundant  jobs  to  the  jobless 
and  would  prevent  them  from  bidding  against 
each  other  for  •  employment,  and,  therefore, 
have  a  great  tendency  to  raise  wages. 

I    feel    confident    that    the    most    important 
sanitary  measure   that   any  community   could 
adopt  would  be  a  tax  on  land  values. 
Yours    very   truly, 
(Signed)       W.    C.    GORGAS, 
Surgeon-General    U.   S.   Army. 


55 


"In  the  matters  «»f  health,  hygiene,  and 
(sanitation,  we  can  not  make  much  further 
progress  until  we  tax  land  values  and  untax 
industry  and  commerce." — Byron  W.  Holt,  in 
"The  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  April,  1915. 

"An  ounce  of  [Single]  taxation  will  do  more 
to  clean  up  a  slum  than  a  score  of  sanitary 
policemen." — Frederic  C.  Howe,  Ex-Commis- 
sioner of  Immigration,  in  "The  World's 
Work,"  December,  1910. 

"We  believe  •with  Surgeon-General  Gorgas 
that  •the  best  sanitary  measure  is  a  Single 
Tax  on  land  values;'  that  the  shifting  of 
taxes  from  industry  and  enterprise  to  site 
values  would,  almost  at  one  stroke,  eliminate 
the  disease-infested  tenement  houses,  thus 
ridding  every  community  of  its  worst  plague 
spots." — David  Gibson,  Publisher  "The  Ground 
Hog,"  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

"I  am  a  Single  Taxer  .  .  .  The  Single 
Tax  would  be  the  means  of  bringing  about 
the  sanitary  conditions  I  so  much  desire 
...  For  sanitation  is  most  needed  by  the 
class  of  people  who  would  be  most  benefited 
by  the  Single  Tax." — William  C.  Gorgas,  Sur- 
geon-General, U.  S.  A.  (Ret.),  in  an  Addres« 
at  Cincinnati,  O.,  September  28,  1914. 

46— It  Will  Reduce  to  a  Minimum  Sickness  and 
Disease. 

"We  have  continually  3,000,000  people  on 
the  sick  list  and  at  least  one-half  of  this 
sickness  is  preventable." — Dr.  Harry  F.  Ward, 
in  "The  Social  Creed  of  the  Churches." 

"Under  the  Single  Tax  .  .  .  we  could 
hope  to  induce  the  public  to  spend  enough 
of  itm  own  to  provide  as  we  have  never 
done  yet  for  really  adequate  hospitals  and 
dispensaries;  for  the  suppression  of  dust  and 
other  public  nuisances;  for  better  water  and 
sewerage  systems;  for  better  housing  inspec- 
tion; for  better  milk  and  provision  inspec- 
tion, and  many  other  things  we  have  to  do 
so  inadequately,  because  we  simply  cannot 
now  find  the  money  with  which  to  prevent 
disease  and  to  preserve  health  and  save  life." 
Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson,  in  "The  American  Journal 
of  Public  Health,"  June,  1914. 

"Tax  vacant  land  equally  with  adjoining 
land  put  to  wise  use,  and  remove  taxes  from 
the  improvements  made  by  the  farmer, 
builder,  manufacturer,  miner,  etc.,  and  you 
will  revolutionize  not  only  industry,  but 
health.  Rents  will  fall,  the  profits  of  the 
farmer,  the  manufacturer  and  the  merchant, 
the  wages  of  the  workman,  will  alike  in- 
crease."— Dr.  Solomon  Solis  Cohen,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.  Quoted  by  Dr.  Seward  W.  Wil- 
liams in  the  "Journal  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association,"  March,  1916. 

47_It  Will  Encourage  Marriage  and  Check  the 
Divorce  Evil. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  War  of  1812  practically 
every  marriageable  man  in  America  had  a  wife, 
and  every  marriageable  woman  had  a  husband. 
Today  there  are  more  than  11,000,000  mar- 

56 


riageable  men  In  America  without  wives,  and 
more  than  10,000,000  marriageable  women 
without  husbands. 

In  1870  the  number  of  divorces  in  this 
country  amounted  to  28  per  thousand  of  popu- 
lation; in  1900,  to  73  per  thousand.  Today  the 
number  is  higher  yet,  and  is  fast  rising. 

To  many  students  of  sociology  these  tenden- 
cies toward  racial  degeneration  seem  very  per- 
plexing. But  there  is  nothing  really  perplexing 


ANOTHFR  HOLDUP. 


— From  The  Chicago  Daily  News. 

about  them.  They  are  the  logical  fruits  of  In- 
creasing economic  pressure  and  of  nothing 
else.  The  great  historian,  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle,  pointed  this  out  more  than  fifty  years 
ago.  In  his  "History  of  Civilization  in  Eng- 
land" (Vol.  I.,  Chap.  I),  he  says: 

"It  Is  now  known  that  marriages  bear  a 
fixed  and  definite  relation  to  the  price  of  corn; 
and  in  England  the  experience  of  a  century 
has  proved  that,  instead  of  having  any  connec- 
tion with  personal  feelings,  they  are  simply 
regulated  by  the  average  earnings  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people;  so  that  this  immense  social 
and  religious  institution  is  not  only  swayed, 
but  is  completely  controlled  by  the  price  of 
food  and  by  the  rate  of  wages." 

When  public  revenue  burdens  upon  irdustrial 
activities  have  been  discontinued  and  monopoly 
exterminated,  so  that  a  man  can  maintain  a 
wife  and  family  in  a  manner  compatible  with 
the  existing  standard  of  life,  then  the  rate  of 
marriage  and  divorce  will  return  to  normal. 
But  not  before. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  for  man  n«  man,  be*- 
stowing  upon  every  one  the  highest  gift — 
opportunity  to  live  honest,  cleanly,  self-in- 
dependent, lives,  neither  entangled  on  the  one 
side  in  a  mesh  of  oppression  which  the 
heart  abhors,  nor  on  the  other  crowded  by 
necessity  to  do  what  the  mind  disallows/' — 
Julia  A.  Kellogg,  in  "The  Arena,"  October, 
1894.  . 

K7 


"The  Single  Tax  is  not  a  national  philoso- 
phy of  life,  but  an  international  and  world- 
wide philosophy  of  life.  Single  Taxers  are 
battling  for  universal  and  equal  freedom — 
freedom  to  live,  to  mutually  help  in  a  common 
humanity t  to  produce,  to  aspire,  and  to  gain 
the  highest  and  best  of  human  aspirations." 
— E.  Stillman  Doubleday  in  "The  Single  Tax 
Review,"  November-December,  1918. 

"The  Single  Tax  will  restore  to  every  child 
born  upon  this  planet,  not  only  its  God-given 
birth  right  in  the  land,  but  also  will  give  to 
It  a  rightful  share  in  that  rich  inheritance 
from  the  past,  of  wealth,  of  knowledge, 
science,  art,  virtue,  and  religion." — Eliza 
Stowe  Twitchell,  "Economic  Principles,"  p. 
35. 

48— It  Will  Lower  the  Death  Rate. 

"The  real  reason  why  there  are  300,000  un- 
necessary deaths  every  year  among  our  babies 
Is  that  the  fathers  cannot  make  enough 
money  to  keep  them  alive." — "Journal  of 
American  Medicine,"  October,  1915. 

"A  study  of  the  causes  of  death  shows  (hat, 
in  general  but  4  per  cent  die  from  old  ayrc, 
4  per  cent  more  die  from  violence,  and  92 
per  cent  die  from  disease.  Of  this  last  great 
group,  nearly  one-half  are  due  to  dlseancs 
of  environment;  that  is,  to  diseases  which 
.  .  .  are  wholly  preventable." — Dr.  Thos. 
Darlington,  in  "Health  and  Efficiency." 

"We  have  1,500,000  deaths  in  the  United 
States  per  annum.  Of  these  1,500,000  deaths, 
42  per  cent,  or  630,OOO  are  annually  prevent- 
able or  postponable." — Prof.  Irving  Fisher, 
"National  Vitality:  Its  Wastes  and  Conserva- 
tion." 

"There  are  no  social  ills  that  cannot  be 
traced  to  our  wicked  and  unjust  tax  system." 
— James  R.  Brown,  "Proceedings  of  the  Sev- 
enty-Fifth Annual  Meeting  of  the  New  York 
State  Agricultural  Society." 

PART  VII 

49_It    Will    Solve    the    Tenement    Housing 
Problem. 

"Reclaim  for  the  community  Its  natural  in- 
come, making  it  expensive  either  to  keep 
needed  land  vacant  or  to  withhold  it  from 
those  ready  and  willing  to  improve  it  to  the 
full  extent  of  its  possibilities.  Does  it  re- 
quire severe  intellectual  effort  to  see  the  re- 
sult? Better  and  better  homes,  apartments, 
tenements,  offices  and  stores,  more  employ- 
ment for  labor  in  all  enterprises  now  held 
back  by  the  shadow  of  the  tax  gatherer,  an 
end  of  all  tax-lying,  tax-evasion,  and  tax- 
injustice,  and  withal  a  public  revenue  ade- 
quate to  all  real  public  needs." — Charles  T. 
Root,  in  "The  American  City,"  July,  1913. 

"The  taxation  of  land  values  will  cut  into 
the  monopoly  of  land  which  is  now  recog- 
nized as  a  fundamental  obstacle  to  all  hous- 
ing schemes." — John  Paul,  in  "Land  Values," 
(London),  December,  1917. 

58 


"The  Single  Tax  would  forever  solve  the 
tenement  house  problem.  ...  I  believe 
there  In  positively  no  other  remedy  for  this 
evil  and  blot  upon  civilization." — S.  S.  Craig, 
in  "The  Arena,"  January,  1899. 

"Remove  the  restrictions — the.  taxes  on 
houses  mul  other  labor  products — nnd  there 
will  be  no  difficulty  as  regards  the  housing; 
of  the  working  classes." — W.  Chapman 
Wright,  in  "The  Westminster  Review," 
March,  1912. 

"The  exemption  from  taxation  of  all  build- 
ings and  other  improvements  on  land  would 
at  once  multiply  buildings  and  other  Im- 
provements. .  .  .  The  filthy  tenements 
that  disgrace  our  cities  would  disappear  aw 
If  by  magic." — James  P.  Kohler,  "Hard  Times: 
The  Cause  and  Cure,"  pp.  80,  81. 

"Appeals  to  philanthropy  would  be  unnec- 
essary (in  Single  Tax  conditions)  to  se- 
cure the  construction  of  commodious  and  san- 
itary tenement  houses  in  the  slums  of  great 
cities.  All  improvements  on  land  being  ex- 
empt from  taxation,  and  landowners  being  no 
longer  fined  by  an  increase  of  taxation  for 
Improving  land,  and  sites  for  such  tenements 
being  obtainable  on  easy  terms,  self-interest 
alone  would  quickly  bring  about  the  employ- 
ment of  labor  in  tearing  down  unsanitary 
rookeries,  and  in  the  construction  of  com- 
fortable dwellings  in  place  of  them." — 
Henry  F.  Ring-,  "The  Problem  of  the  Un- 
employed," p.  231. 

"Take  the  question  of  over-crowding.  The 
land  question  in  the  towns  bears  upon  that. 
It  is  all  very  well  to  produce  'Housing  of 
Working  Class'  bills.  They  will  never  be 
effective  until  you  tackle  the  taxation  of  land 
values." — Lloyd  George,  Prime  Minister  of 
England,  in  an  Address  at  Newcastle,  March 
4,  1903. 

"The  first  thing  to  do  for  good  homes  as 
well  as  for  permanent  good  times  would  seem 
to  be  to  increase  the  available  supply  of  land 
through  increased  taxes  on  all  sites  worth 
owning,  at  the  same  time  abolishing  taxes 
on  improvements.  The  premium  upon  land 
speculation  thus  removed,  and  wages  thus 
permitted  to  rise  and  prices  to  drop  to  their 
normal  levels,  the  worker  should  find  the  get- 
ting and  keeping  of  a  comfortable  home  •with 
adequate  ground  around  it  a  reasonably  easy 
problem." — Prof.  Lewis  J.  Johnson,  in  the 
"Springfield  Daily  Republican"  of  March  30, 
1916. 

"Exemption  of  housing  would  go  a  much 
longer  way  than  any  other  proposition  of 
municipal  housing  to  improve  the  living  con- 
dition of  the  poorer  citizens." — J.  J.  Murphy, 
Commissioner,  Tenement  House  Department 
of  New  York  City,  in  the  "Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,"  March,  1915.  P.  192. 

to 


60— It  Will  Encourage  Municipal  Improvement, 

"The  Single  Tax,"  says  Byron  W.  Holt 
("Municipal  Affairs,"  June,  1899),  "would  re- 
sult in  improving  the  appearance  of  the  city 
in  many  ways.  By  untaxing  buildings  not  only 
would  new  buildings  be  encouraged,  but,  the 
the  yearly  fine  being  removed,  the  old  and 
cheap  buildings  which  now  disfigure  the  city, 
would  be  replaced  by  good-looking  structures. 
As  no  one  could  afford  to  pay  a  tax  on  idle 
land  which  left  no  room  for  speculative  profits, 
nearly  all  very  valuable  land  not  used  for 
parks,  would  contain  valuable  buildings;  and 
the  value  of  the  buildings  would  be  somewhat 
in  proportion  to  the  value  of  the  land  under 
them.  The  city  would  therefore  lose  much  of 
its  present  ragged  appearance.  No  extra  fine 
being  placed  on  fine  appearing  buildings,  their 
external  architecture  would  be  improved. 
Under  the  Single  Tax,  cities  would  also  be 
better  laid  out  and  provided  with  parks. 

"If  a  city  now  wishes  to  improve  its  appear- 
ance and  to  lay  out  its  streets  with  some  evi- 
dence of  design  for  the  accommodation  and 
convenience  of  the  public,  it  can  do  so  only 
after  paying  exorbitant  prices  for  the  land 
condemned.  Under  the  Single  Tax  the  land 
would  have  little  value  and  the  change  could 
be  easily  and  cheaply  made." 

"The  Single  Tax  Is  essential  for  the  com- 
plete solution  of  the  housing  problem,  the 
provision  of  gardens  and  open  spaces,  and 
all  the  other  things  -which  town  planners 
have  set  their  hearts  on." — Joseph  Fels,  in 
"The  American  City,"  November,  1913. 

"The  untaxing  of  improvements  would  give 
free  course  to  building  in  all  its  branches, 
and  to  the  making  of  many  other  improve- 
ments that  are  checked  by  the  present  sys- 
tem."— J.  D.  White,  Member  Parliament,  Eng- 
land, in  "The  Single  Tax  Year  Book,"  p.  345. 

"The  taxation  of  land  values  only  .  .  . 
would  bring  about  a  revolution  in  city  build- 
ing that  would  surpass  all  the  regulatory 
measures  and  all  of  the  health  and  sanitary 
Inspection  that  can  be  devised.  ...  It 
would  enable  parks,  boulevards  and  docks 
to  be  acquired  and  developed;  it  would  per- 
mit the  location  of  public  buildings  and  the 
opening  up  of  open  spaces  and  playgrounds." 
— Frederic  C.  Howe,  Ex-Commissioner  of 
Immigration,  in  "The  World's  Work,"  De- 
cember, 1910. 

51— It  Will  Beduce  the  Cost  of  Tax  Depart- 
ments. 

The  total  cost  of  collecting  the  present  taxes 
in  villages,  towns,  and  cities  of  the  country  is 
conservatively  estimated  at  from  $25,000,000  to 

60 


$40,000,000.  Since  the  Single  Tax  will  dispense 
with  a  vast  army  of  tax  assessors,  tax  "ferrets/* 
clerks,  accountants,  and  so  forth,  the  cost  of 
collection  will  naturally  be  a  great  deal  lower 
than  it  now  is. 

"The  substitution  of  a  Single  Tax  upon  land 
values  for  all  other  taxes  would  represent  an 
Immense  waving  In  our  municipal  tax  depart- 
ments."— Lawson  Purdy,  Former  President  of 
the  Department  of  Taxes  and  Assessments, 
New  York  City. 

"The  Single  Tax  IH  the  most  economical  of 
all  possible  taxes." — Edward  P.  E.  Troy,  Tax- 
ation Expert,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

"In  cheapness  of  collection  no  tax  ap- 
proaches the  land  value  tax.'' — J.  J.  Pastoriza, 
Late  Tax  Commissioner  of  Houston,  Texas. 

62— It  Will  Reduce  the  Cost  of  Fire  Depart- 
ments. 

The  fire  losses  in  the  United  States  in  1916, 
outside  of  forests,  aggregated  $200,000,000;  in 
1917,  $230,000,000;  and  in  1918,  $290,000,000. 
This  terrible  waste  of  property  springs  largely, 
if  not  chiefly,  from  our  vicious  policy  of  pen- 
alizing improvement,  of  taxing  fire-proof  build- 
ings more  heavily  than  we  tax  those  which  are 
not  fire-proof.  Let  a  builder  use  marble 
instead  of  wood,  let  him  tear  down  an  old, 
decayed,  and  dangerous  tenement  and  replace 
It  by  a  new  and  safe  one,  and  lo!  he  is 
Instantly  rewarded  by  heavier  taxation.  The 
result  of  this  shortsighted  policy  is  obviously 
to  discourage  the  putting  up  of  sound  and  safe 
structures,  and  to  encourage  the  retention  of 
unsound  and  unsafe  ones.  Out  of  the  eleven 
or  twelve  million  buildings  in  the  country  in 
1909,  less  than  ten  thousand,  according  to 
Samuel  Hopkins  Adams  (see  Everybody's  Mag- 
azine, June,  1909),  were  even  nominally  fire- 
proof! 

Abandon  this  unwise  custom  of  penalizing 
improvement  and  the  larger  part  of  the  danger 
from  fire  must  disappear.  Fire-proof  buildings 
being  taxed  no  more  than  "fire-traps,"  builders 
will  be  tempted  to  construct  the  first  rather 
than  the  second.  Thus  not  merely  will  the  peo- 
ple save  a  vast  amount  of  property  now 
annually  destroyed  by  fire  itself,  but  they  will 
save  millions  of  dollars  a  year  in  the  cost  of 
maintaining  their  fire  equipment. 

"Ninety  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  such  func- 
tions as  flre  department  and  sanitary  depart- 
ment should  be  charged  to  antiquated  build- 
ings which  are  fire  traps  and  pest  holes,  for 
modern  buildings  need  very  little  flre  service 
and  no  sanitary  service." — Bolton  Hall, 
"Thrift,"  p.  210. 

ftl 


Will  Keduce  the  Cost  of  Police  Depart- 
ments. 

The  total  number  of  prisoners  sentenced  to 
penal  institutions  in  the  United  States  in  1910, 
most  of  which  came  from  the  cities,  was  479,- 
787.  To  apprehend  these  offenders  and  to  guard 
society  against  the  violations  of  others,  cost 
the  residents  of  the  cities  alone,  in  police  pro- 
tection, approximately  $140,000,000.  Probably 
less  than  one-half  of  this  stupendous  sum  will 
be  needed  for  this  purpose  when  the  land 
value  tax  program  has  been  put  in  force.  For 
the  criminals  that  now  prey  upon  society,  are, 
in  the  large  majority  of  cases,  simply  the  vic- 
tims of  social  injustice.  They  are  the  fruits 
of  the  community's  own  sin  in  allowing  publicly 
created  funds — the  rents  of  natural  opportu- 
nities— to  be  privately  appropriated.  When, 
therefore,  the  community  shall  have  washed 
itself  of  this  sin,  when  justice  and  civic  right- 
eousness shall  have  been  established,  and 
ample  opportunity  shall  have  been  given  to  all 
men  to  earn  a  comfortable  living,  the  law 
breaking  classes  will  eventually  dwindle  away. 
And  with  them,  of  course,  will  pass  the  need 
of  large  armies  of  paid  police. 

"Everyone  able  and  willing  to  work  will 
(in  Sinv.lt'  Tax  conditions)  always  be  ca- 
pable of  making  a  comfortable  living;,  so  that 
worry,  envy,  class  hatred,  theft,  robbery,  etc., 
(the  results  of  poverty  and  the  fear  thereof) 
will  not  exist,  and  the  expenses  for  the  main- 
tenance of  police,  asylums,  etc.,  will  be  re- 
duced to  a  minimum." — M.  W.  Norwalk,  in  the 
"Yiddische  Folk,"  November  12,  1915.  Trans- 
lated by  the  author  and  reprinted  in  "The 
Single  Tax  Review,"  July-August,  1916. 

54— It  Will  Keduce  the  Cost  of  Public  Health 
Departments. 

The  matter  of  sanitation  and  conservation  of 
the  public  health  will  very  likely  receive  much 
better  attention  under  the  fiscal  system  herein 
advocated  than  under  the  present  one,  inas- 
much as  human  life  will  be  considered  of  more 
value  than  mere  dollars  and  cents.  Neverthe- 
less, the  $60,000,000  or  so  that  municipalities 
now  spend  each  year  for  this  purpose  will 
doubtless  be  much  in  excess  of  that  needed  to 
provide  the  best  of  service,  for  the  vast  im- 
provement in  personal  health  and  hygiene  that 
the  Single  Tax  will  bring  about  will  leave  but 
little  for  the  public  itself  to  look  after. 

"We  should  save  millions  weekly  [by  the 
land  value  tax]  in  cost  of  local  government, 
In  rents,  interest,  and  usury,  besides  dimin- 
ishing pauperism,  prostitution,  disease  and 
crime." — Edwin  Burgess,  Forerunner  of 
Henry  George,  in  the  "Racine  Advocate," 
1859. 

62 


55— It  Will  Reduce  the  Cost  of  Public  Cliarity 
Departments. 


— Courtesy  of  Alfred  N.  Chandler,  Newark,  N.  J. 


"Some  of  the  greatest  burdens  upon  cities 
are  the  care  of  paupers,  criminals  and  the 
unemployed.  Whatever  will  lessen  these 
classes  will  relieve  the  cost  of  government 
In  cities.  In  every  way  the  effect  of  the 
Single  Tax  would  be  to  lighten  this  burden." 
— Byron  W.  Holt,  in  "Municipal  Affairs," 
June,  1899. 

56— It  Will  Diminish  the  Expense  of  Public 
Parks,  Playgrounds,  Zoological  Gardens, 
Schools,  Libraries,  Bridges,  Courthouses, 
Postoffices,  etc. 

The  outlays  for  municipal  improvements  of 
all  kinds  in  cities  of  more  than  2,500  popula- 
tion, amounted,  in  1912,  to  $383,649,000.  Not 
less  than  $150,000,000  of  this  huge  sum  was 
for  land  alone.  Nine-tenths  of  this  will  be 
saved  under  the  full  Single  Tax.  For  when  all 
of  the  economic  rent  has  been  taxed  out  of  the 
land;  that  is,  all  but  enough  to  induce  the  land- 
owner to  retain  the  title,  the  land  will  be  free, 
or  practically  so. 

"High  taxation  of  land  values  would  re- 
duce the  annual  municipal  expenditures  for 
the  acquisition  of  land  for  municipal  pur- 
poses."— Benjamin  C.  Marsh,  "The  Taxation 
of  Land  Values  in  American  Cities." 


57— It  Will  Diminish  the  Expense  of  Laying 
Pavements,  Sidewalks,  Conduits,  Sewers, 
Water  and  Gas  Mains,  Car  Lines,  Etc. 

The  way  in  which  the  Single  Tax  will  dimin- 
ish the  expense  of  laying  pavements  and  con- 
structing other  municipal  improvements  is 
simply  by  untaxing  the  materials  used,  by 
breaking  land  speculation  and  by  allowing  va- 
cant lots  between  the  suburbs  and  the  business 
districts  of  cities  to  be  put  to  service.  In  other 


THE    ENORMOUS     WASTE    OF    CITIES 

Because  of  the  vast  amount  of  land  held  va- 
cant between  improved  portions  of  American 
towns  and  cities,  literally  billions  of  dollars  are 
wasted  each  year  by  the  taxpayers,  not  merely 
in  building  and  keeping:  in  condition  all  public 
improvements,  such  as  street  car  lines,  sewers, 
telephone  and  electric  lighting  systems,  water 
mains,  pavements,  sidewalks,  etc.,  but  in  the 
wear  of  shoe  leather,  the  tear  of  automobile 
tires,  the  consumption  of  gasoline  for  motor 
cars,  and  coal  for  the  manufacture  of  electrical 
power,  to  say  nothing  of  the  immense  amount  of 
precious  time  consumed  by  men,  horses,  and 
transportation  equipment  in  constantly  passing 
and  repassing  these  same  vacant  spaces. 

Note  the  illustration  below,  typical  of  the 
average  American  city: 

m    -  Improved  land 
PI    -  Unimproved  land 


BBDHEDHEQ 


words,  by  destroying  speculation  it  will  enable 
all  who  wish  to  live  or  settle  in  town  to  locate 
their  residence,  shop,  or  factory  upon  ground 
that  is  "closer  in."  What  an  immense  saving 
this  will  mean  in  the  way  of  constructing  and 
maintaining  all  public  or  semi-public  improve- 

64 


ments  under,  upon,  or  above  the  streets  of 
cities,  can  be  appreciated  only  when  it  is 
remembered  that  from  one-third  to  four-fifthi 
of  every  urban  center  in  America  is  vacant. 
Even  in  the  old  and  congested  cities  of  Man- 
hattan and  Brooklyn,  "seven  hundred  miles  of 
costly  streets  run  past  vacant  lots!" 

"By  encouraging  the  vacant  lot  Industry. 
this  M.v.steni  [of  "taring-  everything"]  enor- 
mously Increases  the  cost  of  opening  and 
grading:  streets,  of  sewers  and  water  mains, 
of  sidewalks  and  pavements,  of  curbs  and 
boulevards,  of  gait,  electric  and  street  ear 
service;  all  of  which  must  be  carried  aero** 
these  waste  spaces  at  enormous  expense." — 
C.  J.  Buell,  in  "The  Ground  Hog,"  August  26, 
1916. 

"About  all  our  cities,  and  especially  about 
New  York,  we  find  great  tracts  of  vacant  land 
intervening  between  •well-built  areas.  These 
intervening  tracts  are  often  fully  developed 
with  streets  and  all  conveniences  greatly  in- 
creasing the  cost  of  city  administration  for 
lighting,  policing,  fire  protection,  and  in  other 
ways." — Edward  Polak,  Register  of  Deeds, 
Bronx  County,  New  York,  in  the  "Annals  of 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,"  March,  1915,  p.  186. 

58— It  Will  Lower   the   Cost  of  Freight  and 
Passenger  Transportation. 

Naturally,  with  miles  of  unimproved  lots 
eliminated,  with  a  vast  empire  of  vacant  ter- 
ritory thrown  open  to  use  that  is  now  held  for 
the  "unearned  increment"  that  it  will  yield  in 
the  future,  with  cities  and  towns  made  more 
compact,  despite  the  spreading  out  of  their 
congested  portions,  the  time  required  for  carry- 
ing men  and  goods  from  one  point  to  another 
will  be  largely  reduced,  and  the  expense  of 
transportation  consequently  correspondingly 
lowered. 

"Due  to  the  fact  that  land  is  not  developed 
naturally,  but  artificially,  billions  of  dollars 
are  wasted  every  year  in  unnecessary  trans- 
portation charges.  In  Cleveland  there  are 
acres  of  land  on  which  as  many  as  50O  people 
are  crowded.  Adjacent  to  these  congested 
acres  there  are  parcels  of  15  and  20  acres  of 
land  without  a  soul  on  them.  On  several 
street  car  lines,  the  cars  run  through  a  mile 
or  two  of  vacant  land  before  they  emerge 
into  a  populated  district.  Take  a  train  from 
Cleveland  to  Columbus  and  you  will  run 
through  miles  of  uncultivated,  unfilled  land. 

"As  communities  we  do  things  which  as  in- 
dividuals we  would  be  arrested  for  doing."— 
"The  Ground  Hog,"  August  10,  1917. 

"Our  systems  of  transportation  cost  vastly 
more  for  original  construction  and  for  opera- 
tion than  they  should,  because  they  must 

65 


traverse  sparsely  settled  territory  to  reach 
settled  areas."  —  Edward  Polak,  Register  of 
Deeds,  Bronx  County,  New  York,  in  the  "An- 
nals of  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,"  March,  1915,  p.  186. 

59_It   Will  Lower   the   Expense   of   Building 
Homes. 

A  hundred  years  ago  practically  every  family 
in  the  nation  owned  its  own  home.  Today, 
out  of  the  14,131,945  residences  in  our  towns 
and  cities,  only  3,408,854  are  owned  "free." 
The  remainder  are  either  mortgaged  or  rented. 

The  chief  cause  of  this  appalling  increase  in 
urban  tenancy  is  directly  traceable  to  the  ris- 
ing value  of  land.  Whereas,  in  the  days  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  he  who  wanted  a  desirable 
site  for  a  home  could  obtain  it  for  a  nominal 


THIS    CONDITION    WILL,    EXIST  — 


— Courtesy     of     "The     Great     Adventure,"     Los 
Angeles,  Calif. 


—SO  LONG  AS  THIS  CONDITION  LASTS 

"~  "BUSINESS 


"5  }• 


•SUBURBS 


sum,  now  he  must  hand  over  anywhere 
from  several  hundred  to  several  thousand  dol- 
lars— the  result,  in  many  cases,  of  years  of 
persevering  toil  and  sacrifice. 

The  taxation  of  land  values,  however,  will 
quickly  turn  the   tables.     It  will   greatly  re- 


duce  the  selling  value  of  the  land  and 
thus  enable  the  prospective  home  builder  to 
secure  his  lot  for  a  mere  trifle.  More  than 
this,  it  will  break  the  monopoly  of  all  other 
natural  resources,  and  thus  make  it  possible 
for  him  to  buy  his  needed  materials  much 
cheaper  than  at  present.  In  this  way,  the 
initial  cost  of  building  homes  for  the  mass 
of  men,  will  be  reduced  at  least  one-fourth  and 
in  numerous  instances  as  much  as  one-half. 

"By  menus  of  the  taxation  of  land  values, 
the  criiNhiiiK"  burden  of  taxes  and  duties*  today 
imposed  upon  industry  and  the  earning;)*  of 
industry  could  at  once  be  removed.  Once 
again  the  masses  of  mankind  would  hnve 
room  to  live;  once  a^ain  they  could  freely 
breathe  God's  air,  bask  in  God's  sunshine, 
share  in  God's  blessings  and  bounties,  main- 
taining themselves  and  those  dependent  upon 
them  by  the  untaxed  fruits  of  their  own  free 
industry." — Gustav  Buscher,  of  Zurich, 
Switzerland,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Review," 
July-August,  1914. 

GO— It  Will  Lower  the  Expense  of  Erecting 
Factories,  Mills,  Plants,  and  Office  Build- 
ings. 

Just  as  the  Single  Tax  will  help  those  who 
wish  to  build  homes,  so  also  will  it  help  those 
who  wish  to  start  a  business  of  any  kind.  The 
thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands,  or  millions 
of  dollars  that  are  now  demanded  by  specula- 


A   100%    AMERICAN    BILLBOARD 
(Fay  Lewis,  Rockford,  Illinois,   Prop.) 


tors  for  a  location  close  to  trade  centers  or 
convenient  to  shipping  facilities,  will  dwindle 
to  an  infinitesimal  amount.  The  land  will  be 
cheap,  and  the  cost  of  building  materials  much 
lower  in  price. 

"The  manufacturer  looking  for  a  site  for 
a  new  factory  -would  no  longer  be  forced 
to  pass  by  an  unimproved  block  in  the  heart 
of  the  manufacturing  district  of  the  city, 

67 


convenient  to  railroad  and  wharf,  to  school* 
and  comfortable  sanitary  dwellings  for  em- 
ployees, and  locate  his  enterprise  in  a  dis- 
tant suburb,  remote  from  such  advantages." 

— Henry  F.  Ring,  "The  Problem  of  the  Un- 
employed," p.  230. 

61 — It  Will  Lower  the  Expense  of  Constructing 
Churches,  Hospitals,  and  Similar  Insti- 
tutions. 

As  with  residences  and  places  of  business,  so 
with  churches,  Y.  M.  C.  A.s,  fraternity  houses, 
and  the  like.  With  the  land  values  destroyed 
and  the  injurious  power  of  the  trusts  broken, 
the  cost  of  erecting  such  institutions  will  be 
greatly  cut  down  and  the  expense  of  maintain- 
ing them  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

"It  has  long  seemed  to  me  that  the  land  tax 
system  advocated  by  Henry  George  would 
create  almost  ideal  conditions  for  the  ordi- 
nary church." — Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch, 
"Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis,"  p.  289. 


62— It  Will  Disintegrate  the  Slums. 

Slums,  or  congested  portions  of  cities,  are 
sometimes  said  to  be  due  to  a  lack  of  ground 
space.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
truth.  From  one-third  to  four-fifths  of  every 
urban  center  in  America,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
unused  territory.  In  New  York  City,  to  be 
exact,  there  are  193,544  vacant  parcels  of  land 
— about  one-half  of  the  area  of  that  metropolis. 
Yet  New  York  City  has  one  of  the  worst  slum 
districts  in  the  world.  In  Chicago,  with  its 
fearful  pressure  of  population  in  certain  quar- 
ters, there  are  held  out  of  use  within  the  actual 
limits  of  the  city,  463,243  lots,  or  more  than 
100  square  miles  of  territory.  Again,  just  out- 
side the  limits,  but  within  the  confines  of 
Cook  County,  in  which  the  city  is  situated, 
there  are  held  unimproved  an  additional  195,- 
681  acres,  or  305  square  miles.  Certainly 
slums  and  overcrowding  can  not  be  attributed 
to  the  lack  of  land.  What  is  responsible  for 
these  conditions  is  simply  our  poverty-breeding 
economic  system.  Change  this  system — kill 
speculation,  stop  penalizing  by  way  of  tax- 
ation those  who  make  improvements,  lower  the 
cost  of  living,  make  employment  plentiful  so 
that  all  who  wish  may  obtain  it,  and  raise  the 
wages  of  labor,  and  slums  and  overcrowded 
districts  will  easily  take  care  of  themselves. 

"With  the  gradual  adoption  of  the  Single 
Tax  system  .  .  .  slums  as  well  as  the 
present  style  of  workmen's  houses  •would  dis- 

68 


appear  and  give  way  to  decent  lions.  ><  and 
cottages  with  ample  room  for  all  the  ameni- 
ties and  convenience*  of  life." — Max  Hirach, 
"Democracy  Versus  Socialism,"  p.  401. 

"Increasing  the  economic  Independence  of 
all  worker*  in  the  only  way  It  can  lie  done, 
by  opening  to  industry  the  natural  opportu- 
nities which  nature  provides  at  our  doors, 
should  gradually  drain  the  slums  of  their 
congestion,  though  It  may  take  some  time 
wholly  to  wean  slum  dwellers  from  the  glit- 
ter and  horrors  of  the  life  to  which  so  many 
seem  perversely  devoted.  As  the  dire  neces- 
sity to  endure  slum  conditions  gradually  dis- 
appears, we  may  fairly  hope  and  believe  that 
the  slums,  the  breeding  place  of  squalor,  dis- 
ease, alcoholism  and  vice,  the  baffling  menace 
to  health  and  stability  of  society,  will  also 
disappear." — Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson,  in  "The 
American  Journal  of  Public  Health,"  June, 
1914. 

63— it  Will  Facilitate  the  "Back  to  The  Land" 
Movement, 

"The  Single  Tax  ...  by  forcing  Into 
use  millions  of  acres  of  Innd  now  unproduc- 
tive .  .  .  will  find  openings  for  all  those 
who  desire  to  get  back  on  the  land." — Arthur 
H.  Weller,  in  "The  Westminster  Review," 
November,  1908. 

A  FEW  ACRES   AND    LIBERTY 


—Courtesy  of  Alfred  N.  Chandler,  Newark,  N.  J. 

"Not  only  would  the  exodus  of  the  country 
population  to  the  cities  be  stopped  but  a 
great  return  flow  from  the  towns  and  cities 
would  take  place.  Town  and  country  life 
would  lose  much  of  their  distinctive  charac- 
ter. Towns  people  living  in  garden-homes 
and  country-people  living  far  more  closely 
than  at  present  would  gain  physically,  men- 
tally, and  morally,  by  this  change." — Max 
Hirsch,  "Democracy  Versus  Socialism,"  p.  402. 

"If  we  tax  land  heavily  enough  people 
will  move  from  the  city  onto  the  land  cheap- 
ened by  the  taxes  which  we  impose  upon  it." 

— Frederic  C.  Howe,  Ex-Commissioner  of 
Immigration,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Year  Book," 
p.  258. 

69 


64— It  Will  Increase  the  Taxes  in  the  Richer 
Districts  of  Cities. 

When  public  revenues  are  collected  solely 
from  ground  rents,  the  wealthier  classes  in 
cities  will  naturally  have  to  contribute  much 
more  to  the  government  than  they  now  do. 
This  holds  good  not  only  of  their  residence 
property  but  of  their  "down-town"  property. 
In  both  cases  the  value  of  the  land  (with 
occasional  exceptions,  of  course,)  outstrips  the 

WHERE    CITY    LAND    VALUES    ARE 

NEW  YORK  CITY 


BOROUGH  OF  MANHATTAN 
(Vacant  land  -  $151,425,530  -  excluded) 


Land 
13,033,015,975 

Irapr  ovement  e 
11,596,084,570 


ALL  OTHER  BOROUGHS 
(Vacant  land  -  $454,232,680  -  excluded) 

Land 
$1,004,740,591 

Aoprovements 
$1,288,391,281 

-  Annual  Report  of  Commissioners  of 
Taxes  and  Assessments,   1915 

CHICAGO 

CENTRAL  BUSINESS  SECTION 


Land 
$427,704,305 

Improvements 
$106,579,431 


OUTLYING  RESIDENCE  SECTION 

Average  value 
of  a  lot 

Avg.  value  of 
a  cottage  on 
the  above  lot 

-  Estimated  by  Mr.  E.J. Batten, 
Chicago,   111.,  1916 

value  of  the  improvements  upon  it.  Especially 
is  this  true  of  the  business  districts.  In  Chi- 
cago, for  example,  the  naked  ground  contained 
within  the  half  section  "bounded  by  the  river 


70 


on  the  west  and  north,  and  the  lake  and  12th 
street  on  the  east  and  south"  is  assessed  at 
$427,704,305,  while  the  improvements — the  ten, 
fifteen,  and  twenty  story  buildings  included — 
are  assessed  at  only  $106,579,431,  or  less  than 
one-fourth  as  much  as  the  land. 

The  same  principle  holds  true  of  every  other 
city. 

HOW  THE  SINGLE  TAX  (LIMITED  TO 
NEEDS  OF  GOVERNMENT),  WOULD  HAVE 
AFFECTED  THE  11  LARGEST  TAXPAYERS 
(EXCEPTING  CORPORATIONS),  IN  BOSTON, 
MASSACHUSETTS,  IN  1913i 

Present  Single 

Name  Tax  Tax 

George   R.   White $  70,687.00  $133,856.80 

Eugene    N.   Foss 41,007.24        44,076.33 

Isabel    Anderson 38,720.64        60,706.00 

Abraham  Shuman .     30,004.06        51,810.15 

Fannie    E.    Morrison 29,771.48        40,621.25 

Eben    D.    Jordan 28,450.52        26,830.72 

Lotta   M.   Crabtree 25,782.80        44.2S2.56 

Frederick     Ayer 24,645.88        44,627.50 

George   A.    Gardner 23,805.06        13,645.38 

George    N.    Black 21,343.48        37,830.87 

Martha    C.    Codman 18,746.28        37,307.12 


Total $363,846.84  $545,614.86 

See   Article  by  Charles  H.   Porter,   in   "The 
Public,"  December  11,  1914. 

66— It  Will  Decrease  the  Taxes  in  the  Poorer 
Districts  of  Cities. 

Precisely  as  the  richer  classes  in  cities  will 
have  to  carry  a  heavier  burden  under  the 
Single  Tax,  so  will  the  poorer  classes  have  to 
carry  less.  For  unlike  the  value  of  the  land 
in  the  "business"  and  "fine  residence"  districts, 
which  exceeds,  in  by  far  the  majority  of  cases, 
the  value  of  the  improvements  upon  it,  the 
value  of  the  land  in  the  "poorer  quarters,"  is 
as  a  general  thing,  much  less  than  the  value  of 
the  improvements. 

"Had  New  York  City  secured  the  total  tnx 
levy  on  land  and  buildings  last  year  [1015] 
by  taxing  land  -values  only,  the  Asters  would 
have  paid  $507,625  more  taxes  than  they  did, 
the  Goelets,  $171,702  more,  the  Gerrys,  $125,- 
162  more,  the  Sloans,  $55,231  more,  E.  H.  Van 
Ingen,  $60,O82  more,  the  Vanderbilts,  $100,024 
more.  The  tax  rate  on  their  land  holdings 
would  have  been  increased  by  about  1  per 
cent  on  the  assessed  value,  I.  e.,  from  about  2 
per  cent  to  3  per  cent,  and  so  would  have 
taken  only  one-fifth  of  their  net  ground  rent 
that  year,  above  taxes,  calculating  this  rent 
at  5  per  cent.  Untaxing  buildings  would  save 
most  small  home  owners  $40  to  $5O  a  year, 
and  would  make  nearly  every  owner  of  a 
big  mansion  pay  more  taxes.  Many  of  them 
own  vacant  land  in  addition  to  their  resi- 
dences. Carnegie  would  have  paid  $19,625 
more." — The  Joseph  Fels  Fund  Bulletin  of 
April,  1916,  quoting:  Benjamin  C.  Marsh  be- 
fore the  Senate  and  Assembly  Committees  of 
the  New  York  Legislature. 

71 


"Taxes  on  small  homes  [under  the  Single 
Tax]  would  be  reduced  from  one-third  to 
three-fifths,  according  to  the  relative  vaJue 
of  the  site  and  building."  —  F.  C.  Leubuscher. 
"Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction,"  1915,  p.  535. 

THE   SINGLE  TAX   IN   THE   CITY 

Comparison  of  present  taxes  and  Single  Tax 
(limited  to  needs  of  government)  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  in  1912: 


COMPARISON  or  PRESENT 


SHALL  HOME AftCA- 
PftCSCNT  TAX 
U*O£RSt,VGLE  TA  X 

MtOOLECLASSAREA- 
PftCSCNTTAX 


BVILO^S     PRESENT  TAX    SIHGIC  MX 
1503.000 

*l.  130.000 


751.000 


S40.00O 


Ft  fte  RESIDENCE  AREA  - 


PRESENT  TAX 

UXCSRStUGLtTAX 


SveufiBA*  AACA- 

UNCEBSlNGLCTAX    C 


WATCH  TAX 
L/su/oftUcatse 

PUBLKUnUTY 

C  ft  AMD  TOTAL 


993.000 


1.  187.000 


5ZI.OOO 


/,  40 O.OOO 


Z.3IO.OOO 


1.800,000 


2,245.000 

790,000       790,000 

450.000       450,000 

430.000       43O.OOO 

#QJB  7O,  OOO  *8,8  TO.  000 


NOTE  ^Sf*Gt.£  TAX  BASED  ON  LAND  9504,000,000  YAIM 


WJ.5. 

—  W.  I.  Swanton  in  "The  Single  Tax  Review," 
July-August,  1914. 


PART  VIII 

Will  Break  Up  Big  Landed  Estates  and 
Speculative  Holdings  in  the  Farming1  Com- 
munities. 

All  vacant  bodies  of  agricultural  land  held 
out  of  use  merely  for  the  "unearned  increment" 
—and  there  are  approximately  600,000,000 
acres  of  such  land  in  the  whole  country  —  will, 
of  course,  either  be  put  to  service  or  thrown 
open  to  settlement  when  the  land  value  tax  is 
generally  applied. 

But  more  than  this.  The  last  Census  Report 
shows  a  total  of  167,082,047  acres  in  "farms  of 
1,000  acres  and  over."  In  the  majority  of  in- 
stances these  "bonanza  farms"  —  especially 
those  ranging  from  10,000  to  1,000,000  acres- 
are  operated  by  salaried  superintendents  em- 
ployed by  absentee  corporations  and  landlords; 
and  hence  these  farms  are,  quite  naturally,  not 


72 


productively  handled,  not  utilized  to  their  full- 
est capacity.  Since  no  owner  of  farm  land, 
however,  will  care,  under  the  new  arrange- 
ment, to  invite  excessive  taxation  by  retaining 
more  ground  than  he  can  profitably  manage 

WHO   OWNS   OUR  AGRICULTURAL   LAND? 


Unimproved  land 

owned  by 
733  landholders 

(98,867,000  acres) 


— From  the  Federal  report  on  "The  Lumber  In- 
dustry," Pt.  Ill,  p.  181.  Government  Printing 
Office,  1914. 


— From  the  Census  Report  of  1910. 

the  inevitable  result  will  be  that  a  still  larger 
quantity  of  available  agricultural  territory  will 
be  opened  up  to  the  multitudes  who  now  wish 
to  build  homes  upon  it,  and  who  are  willing  to 
put  the  soil  to  its  best  and  fullest  use. 

73 


SOME     EXAMPLES     OF     LAND     MONOPOLY. 

(Compiled  from  the  Report  on   "The  Lumber 

Industry,"  by  the  Bureau  of  Corporations, 

Washington,    D.    C.,    1914.      See    Part 

II,   Chap.   6;  Part  III,   Chap.   2) 


LOUISIANA. 

No.  of 

Owner.  Acres. 

Tensas   Delta   Land    Co. 391,000 

William    Buchanan    Companies 330,000 

Long-Bell    Lumber    Co 318,000 

Frost-Johnson    Lumber    Co 277,000 

Missouri   Lumber  &   Land   Exchange 

interests     276,000 

Great   Southern   Lumber  Co.  and  af- 
filiated   companies 233,000 

Calcasieu     Pine     Co.     and     Southern 

Lumber    Co.    134.OOO 

Jay    Gould    Estate 124,000 

Lutcher   &    Moore   interests 121.OOO 

Central  Coal  &  Coke  Co 95,000 

260    other    holders    own ._  3,016,000 


Total   acreage    (270   holders) 5,315,000 

Average     number    of     acres     per 

holder 19,70O 

Total    improved    acreage    in    Louisi- 
ana    (1910    Census) 5,276,016 

Total  number  of  farms 120,546 

Average   number   of   acres   per   farm  48 

MICHIGAN. 
(Upper  Peninsula   Only.) 

Cleveland  Cliffs  Iron  Co 1,515,000 

Keweenaw    Association     (Ltd.) 373.00O 

The  Michigan  Iron  &  Land  Co.  (Ltd.)  324,000 

I.    Stephenson   interests 302,000 

Chicago  &  Northwestern  Ry 1S6,OOO 

United   States    Steel    Corporation 171,000 

130  other  holders  own ._  3,624,000 


Total   acreage    (136  holders) 6,495,000 

Average    number    of    acres    per 

holder 47,760 

Total  improved  acreage  in  Michigan 

(entire   state)    12,832,078 

Total  number  of  farms 206,960 

Average  number  of  acres  per  farm —  62 

FLORIDA. 

Southern  States  Land  &  Timber  Co..  1,402,OOO 
Empire  Land  &  National  Timber  Co  941,000 
Florida   Coast   Line   Canal   &  Trans- 
portation interests 610,000 

John  Paul  &  East  Coast  Lumber  Co.  GOO.OOO 

R.  J.   Bolles 474,000 

R.  J.  &  B.  F.  Camp  Lumber  Co.  and 

Crystal   Lumber   Co. 375,000 

Model  Land  Co. _  355,000 

Cummer  Lumber  Co. 318.0OO 

Dowling   Lumber   Co. 305,000 

Hlllmnn    Sutherland   Co.    273.0OO 

Putnam  Lumber  Co. 238.0OO 

Arlpeka    Sawmill    Co. 232,000 

Myaka    Land   Co. 193,000 

Florida   Land   &  Timber  Co 189.0OO 

Stearns  &  Culver  Lumber  Co 189,000 

St.  Joseph  Land  &  Development  Co —  184.0OO 

74 


Southern  Timber  &  Naval  Store*  Co., 
Florida     Land     Co.     and     affiliated 

companies 182,000 

J.    P.    William*    and    J.    P.    William* 

Land    Co. 177,000 

B.    Beaeham    177.OOO 

\\  :ison    Cypress    Company 194,000 

Hodden,    O'Hnra   &    RuMMell    Interests      .1.V..OOO 

B.   Parker   et   al 146,000 

McLeod     Timber    &    Duluth     Timber 

Companies  — 133,000 

28  other  holder*  own 2,688,000 

36  other  holder*  own 2,175,OOO 

47  other  holder*  own 1,726,OOO 

66    other    holder*    own 1,479,OOO 

80  other  holder*  own__  _   1,130,OOO 


Total    acreage    (290   holder*) 18,049,000 

Average     number    of    acre*     per 

holder 65,341 

Total   improved    acreage    In    Florida, 

(1910    Census)    1,8O5,4O8 

Total    number    of    farm* 50,016 

Average  number  of  acre*  per  farm 36 

PACIFIC    STATES. 

Northern   Pacific   Railway   Co 9,950,000 

Southern   Pacific   Railway   Co 13,880,000 

Atchlson,  Topeka  &   Santa  Fe  Rail- 
way Co. _   9,653,000 


Total   acreage    (3   holders) 33,483,OOO 

Total  improved  acreage  in  the  nine 
states  of  Idaho,  Wyoming,  New 
Mexico,  Montana,  Utah,  Nevada, 
Washington,  Oregon  and  Cali- 
fornia   33,300,736 

Total  number  of  farm* 318,140 

Average  number  of  acre*  per  farm 104 

67— It  Will  Solve  the  Farm  Tenancy  and  Farm 
Mortgage  Problems. 

When  the  keen  French  observer,  Alexander 
DeTocqueville,  visited  the  United  States  more 
than  65  years  ago,  he  wrote  ("Democracy  in 
America,"  Vol.  II,  p.  196) : 

"In  America  there  are,  properly  speaking,  no 
farming  tenants;  every  man  owns  the  ground 
he  tills.  *  *  *  Land  is  cheap,  and  any  one 
may  easily  become  a  landowner." 

What  is  the  status  of  the  agricultural  popu- 
lation today?  Of  the  6,361,502  farmers  in  Amer- 
ica, only  2,588,596,  or  41%,  according  to  the 
Census  Bureau,  own  their  farms  "free  of  all 
incumbrance;"  1,312,034,  or  21%,  have  their 
homes  "mortgaged;"  while  the  remaining 
2,354,676,  or  more  than  37%  are  renters — 
strangers  in  the  land  of  their  birth! 

From  what  does  this  startling  decline  of  the 
rural  population  primarily  arise?  It  arises 

76 


primarily  from  the  constantly  increasing  value 
of  agricultural  land.  Ground  that  in  the  be- 
ginning had  no  value,  and  that  in  DeTocque- 
ville's  time  was  "cheap,"  now  costs,  if  we  may 
believe  the  Department  of  Agriculture  (see 
Monthly  Crop  Report  of  April,  1916),  an  aver- 
age of  $45.55  per  acre.  In  other  words,  a  farm 

THE   TOLL,   OF   LANDLORDISM 


— Courtesy  of  Alfred  N.  Chandler,  Newark,  N.  J. 

of  one  or  two  hundred  acres  which,  a  few  gen- 
erations back  was  to  be  had  for  the  mere  tak- 
ing, today  costs  the  ordinary  man  more  than 
he  is  able  to  accumulate  in  a  lifetime! 

But  the  remedy  is  the  same  in  the  open  coun- 
try as  it  is  in  the  city.    Place  all  taxes  on  the 


RESPECTFULLY   REFERRED    TO   THE 
AMERICAN    LEGION 


•»•*/*  «. «.     - 


— Courtesy  of  the  "Salt  Lake  Mirror.' 


value  of  land,  thus  destroying  land  specu- 
lation and  land  monopolization  at  the  root,  and 
the  fundamental  cause  of  increasing  farm  ten- 
ancy and  farm  indebtedness  will  be  gone. 

76 


CONDITION    OP  THE  TENANT  FARMER   IN 
AMERICA. 

"No  nation-wide  Investigation  of  the  con- 
dition of  tenant  farmer**  linn  ever  been  made, 
but  in  Texas,  where  the  investigations  of 
this  Commission  were  thorough  and  conclu- 
sive, it  wa»  found  not  only  that  the  eco- 
nomic condition  of  the  tenant  was  extremely 
bad,  but  that  he  was  far  from  being  free, 
while  his  future  wag  regarded  as  hopeless. 
Badly  housed,  111-nouriMhed,  uneducated  and 
hopeless,  these  tenants  continue  year  after 
year  to  eke  out  a  bare  living,  moving  fre- 
quently from  one  farm  to  another  in  the 
hope  that  something  will  turn  up.  Without 
a  large  family  the  tenant  can  not  hope  to 
succeed  or  break  even,  so  in  each  tenant 
family  numerous  children  are  being  reared 
to  a  future  which  under  present  conditions 
will  be  no  better  than  that  of  their  parents, 
if  as  good.  The  wife  of  a  typical  tenant 
farmer,  the  mother  of  eleven  children,  stated 
in  her  testimony  before  the  Commission  that 
in  addition  to  the  rearing  of  children,  mak- 
ing their  clothes  and  doing  the  work  of  the 
house,  she  always  helped  with  the  crops, 
working  up  to  within  three  or  four  months 
before  children  were  born,  and  that  during 
all  the  years  of  her  married  life  she  had  had 
no  ready-made  dresses  and  only  three  hats." 
— Final  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Indus- 
trial Relations,"  pp.  14,  15. 

"We  possess  445  acres  of  land  almost  paid 
for,  the  gambling  value  of  which  is  about 
92O,OOO.  Would  shout  for  joy  if  we  could 
change  to  Single  Tax  conditions.  Every  farm- 
er who  has  not  the  cash  to  pay  for  land 
(and  few  have)  sells  himself  and  family  as 
slaves  for  life  to  a  landlord,  when  they  buy 
land  needed  to  farm  on,  because  all  they  can 
earn  more  than  needed  to  live  on  must  go 
In  one  form  or  another  to  pay  it.  Negro 
slavery  was  bad,  but  this  in  many  ways  Is 
worse." — Henry  Cramer  and  Family,  Houston, 
Va.  Quoted  in  "The  Joseph  Fels  Fund  Bulle- 
tin," July,  1915. 

68— It  Will  Enlarge  the  Farmer's  Market  and 
Give  Him  a  Better  Price  for  His  Produce. 

The  farmer's  market  lies  practically  alto- 
gether in  urban  centers.  There  he  sells  the 
bulk  of  all  he  produces — from  fruits  and  vege- 
tables, to  grain,  cotton,  wool,  poultry,  live 
stock,  and  dairy  products.  On  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  city  population,  therefore,  he  is 
dependent,  in  a  large  measure,  for  his  own 
welfare.  If  his  customers  are  able  to  demand 
much,  he  is  obviously  at  a  greater  advantage 
than  if  they  are  able  to  demand  but  little.  Now 
the  tendency  of  our  present  economic  system, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  to  impoverish  the  pro- 
ducing classes  of  the  cities — especially  the 
wage-earners.  Hundreds  of  thousands  are, 

77 


even  in  normal  times,  periodically  out  of  em- 
ployment, while  the  under-bidding  of  these 
keeps  the  wages  of  the  rest  constantly  below 
their  natural  level.  Moreover,  the  constant  toll 
of  privilege  in  the  shape  of  exorbitant  rents 
and  interest  on  land  values  cuts  down  the  gen- 
eral purchasing  power  further  yet.  The 
farmer's  market  consequently  is  restricted.  He 
is  able  to  supply  more  than  his  chief  custom- 
ers can  demand. 

What  will  be  the  effect  of  the  land  value  tax 
program?  It  will  reverse  the  order.  The 
great  improvement  in  the  material  condition  of 
all  the  people — the  annihilation  of  privilege 
and  monopoly,  and  the  abundance  of  steady  em- 
ployment, coupled  with  the  rise  in  wages  that 
this  program  will  bring  about,  will  create  on 
the  part  of  the  wage-and-salary-earning  class- 
es, a  demand  for  the  farmer's  goods  brisker 
than  he  can  supply. 

"The  city  is  the  farmer's  market.  Any- 
thing the  farmer  can  do  by  legislative  in- 
fluence to  prosper  the  elty  will  prosper  him 
by  prospering  his  market.  By  permitting 
people  in  the  city  to  adopt  Single  Tax,  less 
money  will  go  to  the  few  in  the  form  of 
Interest  on  high  land  values,  and  the  many 
Trill  have  more  money  to  buy  more  from  the 
farmer." — David  Gibson,  in  "The  Ground 
Hog,"  April  10,  1917. 

"To  market  is  to  trade,  and  a  man  with 
SOMETHING  to  trade  can  make  no  exchange 
with  a  man  who  has  NOTHING  to  trade. 
.  .  .  To  remedy  this  is  the  object  and  pur- 
pose of  the  Single  Tax  niovement." — S.  B. 
Riggen,  in  "The  Arena,"  August,  1894. 

"The  Single  Tax  will  lower  rents  in  our 
great  cities  and  thereby  Improve  the  market 
for  the  farmers*  products." — James  R.  Brown, 
"Proceedings  of  Seventy-Fifth  Annual  Meet- 
ing of  New  York  State  Agricultural  Society." 

69— It  Will  Increase  the  Agricultural  Produc- 
tion. 

Farmers  who  farm  their  own  land  have  but 
little  less  to  gain  from  the  adoption  of  Single 
Tax  than  those  who  do  not.  Consider,  for 
example,  the  matter  of  preventable  losses  now 
annually  sustained  by  the  "free-owning"  farm- 
ers because  of  the  spread  of  destructive  weeds, 
the  ravages  of  insect  pests,  and  the  inroads  of 
all  transmittable  diseases  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals. These  losses,  which,  in  the  case  of  in- 
sect pests  alone  (see  Yearbook,  U.  S.  Dep't  of 
Agriculture,  1909),  amount  annually  to  more 
than  $970,000,000,  and  in  the  case  of  animal 
diseases  (Yearbook,  1915),  to  an  average  of 
$212,000,000,  are  chargeable  in  the  great  ma- 

78 


Jority  of  cases  simply  to  the  ignorance  and 
inefficiency  of  their  poverty-stricken  neighbors 
— especially  their  tenant  neighbors. 

Not  that  such  farmers  are  naturally  inferior 
to  any  other.  They  are  not.  But  under  the  un- 
just economic  system  now  prevailing,  such 
farmers  lack  opportunity.  They  have  little  or 
no  time  to  read  and  study,  and  to  reflect  upon 
the  problems  of  their  occupation,  or  are  gen- 
erally too  exhausted  and  too  discouraged  for 
such  exercise  when  they  do  have  the  time. 
They  know  nothing  of  the  deeper  sciences  and 
next  to  nothing  of  the  simpler.  They  have 
small  chance  to  attend  Farmers'  Institutes, 
examine  agricultural  displays,  or  go  to  listen 
to  the  addresses  of  experts,  for  lo!  this  would 
take  a  few  hours  from  the  plow  and  maybe  a 
dollar  or  two  from  the  pocket!  Every  hour 
of  their  time  must  be  judiciously  utilized  and 
every  penny  of  their  earnings  saved  to  pay  the 
landlord  his  rent  and  the  money-lender  his 
exorbitant  interest  at  the  appointed  hour. 

Why  wonder,  therefore,  that  on  the  whole, 
they  are  ignorant  and  wasteful?  Why  wonder 
that  the  seeds  they  grow,  and  which  the  inde- 
pendent farmers  frequently  buy,  are  invariably 
of  inferior  grade  and  of  low  germinating  qual- 
ity; that  they  seldom  know  how  best  to  com- 
bat the  spread  of  troublesome  weeds  and  nox- 
ious grasses;  that  their  fields  are  the  hatching 
grounds  of  pestiferous,  yet  controllable  in- 
sects, many  of  which,  like  the  chinch  bug  and 
the  Hessian  fly,  annually  ravage  wide  terri- 
tories, doing  incalculable  damage;  and  that  In 
their  orchards  and  granaries  and  pastures  and 
live  stock  pens,  the  transmittable  diseases  of 
plants  and  animals  go  uninterruptedly  on? 

But  take  the  rent  of  land  for  community  pur- 
poses and  the  causes  that  make  for  such  igno- 
rance and  wastefulness  will  vanish.  For  all 
tenants  will  then  not  merely  have  absolutely 
no  taxes  to  pay  but  their  annual  rent  burden 
will  be  much  less  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
with  the  raising  of  the  "economic  margin"  rent 
will  fall,  while  with  the  breaking  up  of  large 
estates  and  the  release  of  extensive  areas  of 
vacant  land  by  speculators,  they  will  soon  be 
able  to  obtain  good  ground  at  a  nominal  price. 
Further,  with  the  cheapening  of  money  and 
the  increase  in  banking  facilities  resulting  from 
the  same  principle  (see  topic  31)  they  will 
soon  be  able  to  secure  loans  at  far  more  ad- 
vantageous rates  of  interest  than  at  present 

79 


Think  what  this  means  to  the  tenants.  It 
means  opportunity,  encouragement,  fresh  hope. 
It  means  the  end  of  their  moving  about  and 
the  acquisition  of  homes  of  their  own.  It 
means  independence,  the  escape  from  per- 
petual debt,  freedom  from  tyranny  and  oppres- 
sion, the  assertion  of  their  manhood  and  dig- 
nity. It  means  better  tools  for  their  work,  with 
less  exhausting  toil  and  more  time  for  the  ab- 
sorption of  knowledge,  for  reading,  studying, 
and  investigation.  It  means  a  chance  to  visit 


OUT  OF  THE  MOUTHS  OF  GOVERNORS 

"The  farmer  should  not  be  penalized  be- 
cause he  improves  the  acres  he  holds." — Gov- 
ernor F.  M.  Byrne,  South  Dakota,  1916. 

"Governor  Byrne's  contention  [that  the 
farmer  should  not  be  penalized  by  taxation 
because  he  improves  his  land],  is  essentially 
sound." — Governor  Arthur  Capper,  Kansas, 
1916. 

"I  favor  local  option  in  taxing?  land  value* 
at  higher  rates  than  those  imposed  on  the 
products  of  industry." — Governor  D.  I.  Walsh, 
Massachusetts,  1915. 

"There  should  be  such  proper  exemptions 
am  will  encourage  improvements  upon  farms 
and  lands." — Governor  J.  H.  Morehead,  Ne- 
braska, 1916. 

"I  favor  nntaxing  labor  and  the  products 
of  labor." — Governor  William  Sulzer,  New 
York.  1914. 

"An  exemption  from  taxation  of  all  im- 
provements on  land  farmed  by  owners  would 
have  a  wholesome  tendency  to  reduce  land 
•peculation." — Governor  Henry  Allen,  Kansas, 
1919. 

"I  would  like  to  see  the  Single  Tax  plan 
worked  into  our  tax  system." — Governor  W. 
N.  Ferris,  Michigan,  1916. 


Farmers'  Institutes  and  agricultural  exhibits, 
a  chance  to  watch  the  demonstrations  of 
County  Agents  and  College  Extension  Bureaus, 
a  chance  to  question  scientists  and  experts.  It 
means  an  opportunity  to  learn  how  to  conserve 
the  moisture  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  how 
to  rotate  their  crops,  what  crops  to  grow  and 
what  not  to  grow,  how  to  select  seeds  and 
treat  them  for  smut,  how  to  eradicate  pesti- 
ferious  weeds,  control  destructive  insects,  and 
check  the  many  communicable  diseases  of 
plants  and  animals — in  short,  how  to  produce 
the  raw  materials  for  food  and  clothing  with 
the  minimum  of  time  and  effort,  not  only  to 
themselves,  but  to  the  whole  community  in 
which  they  live.  The  gain  to  the  independent 


farmers  from  these  improved  agricultural 
methods  on  the  part  of  their  down-trodden 
neighbors  will  amount  to  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars  a  year. 

"The  building-  of  a  sound  economic  founda- 
tion for  a  wholesome  rural  civilization  la  be- 
ing prevented  by  the  Increase  In  tenantry. 
.  .  .  The  most  hopeful  solution  appears  to 
be  the  control  of  tenantry  through  exercise 
of  the  taxing  power." — Prof.  Paul  L.  Vogt, 
Department  of  Rural  Economics,  Ohio  Univer- 
sity, in  an  Address  Before  a  Joint  Meeting  of 
the  American  Economic  Association  and 
American  Sociological  Society  at  Columbus. 
Ohio,  December,  1916. 

"To  exterminate  land  monopoly  Is  to  re- 
move the  cause  of  the  Incipient  degeneracy 
that  has  laid  hold  upon  the  republic;  to  ar- 
rest the  process  of  social  decay  and  put  an 
end  to  conditions  that  are  growing  more  dis- 
tressing to  all  and  which  have  practically 
made  serfs  of  a  majority  of  American  culti- 
vators of  the  soil. 

"There  is  but  one  method  remaining  by 
which  land  monopoly  can  be  reached  that 
has  thus  far  never  been  applied  on  any 
extended  scale,  or  to  its  full  extent.  It  Is 
to  require  that  land  monopolists,  the  real 
owners  of  the  country,  pay  the  expense*  of 
running  It." — Western  Starr,  Farmer  and 
Publicist,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Review,"  May- 
June,  1916. 

"The  use  of  land  must  be  encouraged  If 
we  are  to  feed,  not  only  the  nations  of  the 
world,  but  if  we  are  to  keep  hunger  and 
starvation  from  our  very  doors.  The  taxation 
of  land  values  is  the  remedy.  It  strikes  at 
the  root  of  the  evil." — Eugene  Frey,  Lecturer, 
Illinois  State  Grange,  in  "The  Ground  Hog," 
September  10,  1917. 


70— It  Will  Improve  the  Conditions  for  Rural 
Co-operation. 

As  in  the  case  of  production  itself,  so  in  the 
case  of  marketing  and  distribution — here, 
again,  the  debt-ridden  tenant  farmers,  because 
of  their  inefficiency,  hold  down  the  incomes  of 
those  who  farm  their  own  land.  The  tenant 
farmers  rarely  cooperate  with  their  fellows 
The  great  majority  are  nomadic — shifting  about 
each  year  from  one  place  to  another,  "mining" 
the  soil  of  its  fertility,  making  few  acquaint- 
ances, and  taking  little  or  no  interest  in  the 
community  at  large.  Because  of  their  limited 
knowledge  and  hopeless  condition  they  rarely 
sort  or  grade  their  products;  they  follow  few 
standards;  and  they  seldom  know  how,  when, 
and  where  best  to  dispose  of  their  goods.  The 
consequence  is  that  the  independent  farmers 
who  more  fully  recognize  the  value  of  effective 

81 


teamworK  in  buying  and  selling,  are  compelled 
to  suffer  along  with  the  tenants.  Not  only  are 
they  unable  to  supply  a  superior  product  and 
realize  the  full  value  of  that  product,  but  they 
are  frequently  obliged  to  sell,  in  a  glutted 
market,  goods  whose  price  is  considerably  be- 
low what  is  reasonable  and  fair. 

But  give  the  tenants  a  fair  chance  in  life, 
open  up  the  opportunities  that  nature  and  civ- 
ilization affords,  and  such  wastefulness  will 
soon  end.  The  advantage  of  intelligent  team- 
work in  marketing  will  shortly  dawn  upon 
them.  They  will  learn  how  best  to  prepare 
their  products  for  the  market,  what  grades  and 
sizes  are  the  most  desirable,  what  standards 
to  go  by,  where  and  when  to  sell  and  where 
and  when  not  to  sell — in  a  word,  how  to  work 
and  cooperate  effectively  with  their  fellowmen 
and  to  increase,  not  only  their  own  earning 
power,  but  the  earning  power  of  all  their 
neighbors. 

"I  say  to  you  farmers  that  this  Single 
Tax,  of  -which  I  am  proud  to  be  an  advo- 
cate, would  be  to  the  over-burdened  farmers 
and  workingmen  the  greatest  boon,  the  great- 
est blessing,  the  greatest  God-send  that  any 
country  ever  knew." — Tom  L.  Johnson,  Mayor 
of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  Before  an  Audience  of 
Ohio  Farmers,  1909. 

71— It  Will  Reduce  the  Price  of  Practically 
Everything  the  Farmers  Buy. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  the  various  trusts 
and  monopolies  in  the  United  States — railroad, 
shipping,  waterpower,  packing,  stockyard, 
communication,  coal,  oil,  iron,  timber,  etc., 
charge  the  farmers  in  common  with  all  other 
consumers,  an  average  of  33%  more  than  is 
necessary  to  furnish  them  with  a  reasonable 
rate  of  profit  on  their  capital  actually  invested. 
Whether  or  not  this  estimate  is  literally  cor- 
rect is  a  matter  of  small  moment.  Certain 
it  is  that  when  the  teeth  of  the  above  trusts 
and  monopolies  have  been  extracted  by  the 
Single  Tax  method,  the  price  of  practically 
everything  the  farmers  purchase — "store  food," 
wearing  apparel,  kitchen  utensils,  furniture, 
lumber,  brick,  tools,  machinery,  etc., — will 
make  a  substantial  drop. 

'•There  is  no  possible  way  except  through 
the  adoption  of  the  Single  Tax  to  prevent 
the  robbery  of  the  farmer,  which  takes  even 
from  the  most  prosperous  a  large  part  of 
his  just  profits,  and  which  steadily  reduces 
Increasing  numbers  to  the  condition  of  strug- 
gling, poverty-stricken  tenants,  or,  what  is 
essentially  the  same  thing,  mortgage-bur- 

82 


dened  owner*  whose  equity  in  their  farm* 
I»  steadily  becoming?  a  minus  quantity." — 

George  P.  Hampton,  Editor  of  "The  Farmers' 
Open  Forum,"  in  "The  Single  Tax  Year  Book," 
p.  265. 

MIf  by  taxation  .  .  .  we  make  It  imporixlble 
to  hold  idle  land  and  other  natural  re- 
sources, then  new  farms,  new  mines,  new 
Industries  will  be  developed  everywhere,  and 
free  competition  thus  promoted  will  result 
In  new  jobs,  higher  wages,  increased  pro- 
duction, lower  prices,  lower  rents,  and  better 
markets  for  farm  and  factory/' — George  L. 
Record,  Republican  Candidate  for  Senator  of 
New  Jersey,  1918.  Quoted  in  "The  Public"  of 
April  20,  1918. 


72— It  Will  Lower  the  Farmers'  Federal  Taxes. 

The  amount  of  federal  taxes  paid  by  the 
farmers  in  1912  (not  taking  into  consideration 
the  monopoly  profits  of  trusts  due  to  these 
taxes),  was  equal  to  the  amount  paid  by  all 
other  consumers — about  $35  per  family.  In 
1917,  the  first  year  of  the  great  war,  this  sum 
had  risen  to  approximately  $80  per  family,  and 
in  1918  it  was  estimated  to  be  in  the  vicinity 
of  $110.  In  1919  it  exceeded  $200  per  family. 

Practically  all  of  this  unseen,  yet  severely- 
felt  burden,  will  be  taken  off  the  farmers  under 
the  Single  Tax.  For  the  Single  Tax  is  not  a 

CITY  LAND  VALUES  VS.  FARM  LAND  VALUES 

The  value  of  the  bare  land  in  New  York  City 
in  1913  was  greater  by  9205,087,474  than  the 
value  in  1910  of  all  the  improved  and  unimproved 
farm  land  in  the  twenty-seven  (27)  States  shown 
in  black: 


— See  Annual  Report  of  Commissioners  of  Taxes 
and  Assessments  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
1916. 

— Census    Report    of    1910. 

tax  upon  the  products  of  labor — that  is  to  say, 
upon  consumption;  it  is  a  tax  upon  land  in 
proportion  to  its  value.  And  the  bulk  of  the 
land  values  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  agricul- 

83 


tural  districts,  but  In  lumbering  and  mining 
regions,  along  railroad  lines,  rivers  and  the 
seashore,  and  especially  in  towns  and  cities. 
Of  the  $125,000,000,000  or  more  of  land  value 
in  the  United  States,  considerably  less  than 
one-third  is  in  the  rural  communities.  But 
this  third,  or  approximately  $38,000,000,000  is 
not,  however,  all  owned  by  farmers.  Fully 
$15,000,000,000  of  it  is  owned  by  speculators — 
men  who  are  letting  their  ground  lie  idle.  But 
37%  of  the  farmers  again  are  tenants,  while 
another  21%  are  mortgaged.  This  means  that 
fully  $8,000,000,000  more  of  land  is  owned  by 
absentee  landlords  and  money-lenders.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  actual  bona-fide  farmers — 
farmers  who  really  own  the  ground  they  till — 
have  but  a  ridiculously  small  proportion  of  the 
total  land  values  of  the  nation. 

Let  there  be  no  mistake.  Under  the  Single 
Tax  all  farmers  will  pay  their  full  share  of 
the  federal  expenses.  But  they  will  not  as 
now  pay  any  more  than  this.  As  compared 
with  their  present  unjust  burden  the  new  and 
just  one  will  be  insignificant. 

"After  ten  years  of  close  study  of  the  sub- 
ject of  taxation,  as  the  responsible  head  of 
the  Washington  State  Grange,  I  am  positively 
convinced  that  this  plan  of  taxation  [the  Sin- 
gle Tax]  is  not  only  the  best  for  the  farm- 
ers, hut  the  only  one  that  will  take  the  bur- 
den of  taxation  off  the  producers  and  place  it 
where  it  really  belongs,  namely,  on  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  special  privilege." — C.  B.  Kegley, 
Late  Master  of  the  Washington  State  Grange. 
Quoted  in  "The  Ground  Hog,"  July  15,  1916. 

73— It  Will  Lower  the  Farmers'  State  Taxes. 

The  state  taxes  are  not  collected  wholly 
from  consumption  as  are  the  national  taxes, 
but  most  of  them  are.  This,  of  course,  puts 
an  unfair  burden  on  all  consumers,  and  relieves 
privilege  from  contributing  its  full  quota.  As 
farmers  have  greater  interests  as  consumers 
and  producers  than  they  have  as  mere  land- 
owners, they  will,  therefore,  when  the  state 
taxes  on  the  products  of  labor  are  abolished, 
gain  much  more  than  they  will  lose. 

"The  fanner  who  improves,  irrigates,  ma- 
nures and  intensively  uses  his  land  will  find 
that  the  Single  Tax  is  a  scheme  for  taking 
off  his  burden  of  taxes  and  laying  them  on 
the  shoulders  of  the  land  monopolist." — Her- 
bert Quick,  Editor  "Farm  and  Fireside"  and 
member  of  the  Federal  Farm  Loan  Board. 

"The  [farmer's]  land  is  at  present  assessed 
at  nearly  twice  its  proper  unimproved  value, 
while  town  and  city  land  is  often  valued  at 
less  than  one-half  of  its  actual  value,  thus 

84 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE   SINGLE  TAX 


the  Single  Tax  (limited  to  need*  of  gov- 
ernment)  would  have  affected  farmer*,  farm  land 
•peculator*,  and  the  owners  of  both  im  proved 
and  unimproved  lots,  In  the  entire  State  of 
Oregon  in  1900s 


FARMERS 


Gen-  Prop.  Tax 
$3,730,150 


Single  Tax 
11,941,493 


FARM  LAND  SPECULATORS 


OWNERS  OF  UN IMPROVED  LOTS 


Oen.  Prop.  Tax 
$1,826,743 

Single  Tax 
$3,133,719 


Gen.  Prop.  Tax 
$2,522,080 

Single  Tax 
$2,326,806 


Gen.  Prop.  Tax 
$1,366,368 

Single  Tax 
$2,326,806 


— From  "People's  Power  and  Public  Taxation," 
by  W.  G.  Eggleston,  A.  D.  Cridge  and  W.  S. 
U'Ren,  of  Oregon. 


subjecting  him  to  a  more  than  fourfold  dis- 
advantage."— C.  B.  Fillebrown,  "Principles  of 
Natural  Taxation,"  p.  231. 

"Some  of  the  farmers  have  an  Idea  that 
the  Single  Tax  or  land  tax  will  hit  them  hard 
and  Is  for  the  benefit  of  the  city  man.  This 
Isn't  so  where  the  Single  Tax  has  been  par- 
tially tried  out." — Alson  Secor,  Editor  "Suc- 
cessful Farming1,"  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  Febru- 
ary, 1912. 

"Sinee  the  Single  Tax  would  fall  most 
heavily  on  the  cities  where  land  values  are 
greatest  the  poorer  agricultural  districts 
could  be  relieved  from  the  heavy  burden  of 
taxation." — Profs.  Burch  and  Nearing,  "Ele- 
ments of  Economics,"  p.  340. 


"It  can  not  be  said  that  if  Single  Tax  he 
adopted  it  will  fall  heavily  upon  the  farmer* 
of  a  state.  It  will  not,  in  fact,  fall  as  heav- 
ily upon  the  farmers  of  the  state  as  It  will 
on  owners  of  land  in  cities  and  towns." — G. 
Li.  Carlson,  in  "Carlson's  Rural  Review,"  Nor- 
folk, Neb.,  September,  1914. 


85 


74— It  Will  Lower  tlie  Farmers'  Local  Taxes. 

Farmers  who  farm  their  own  farms  will,  as 
well  as  tenants,  have  a  smaller  local  burden  to 
carry  under  the  Single  Tax  than  they  have  at 
present.  For  two  reasons:  In  the  first  place, 
there  will  be  no  taxes  on  their  improvements 
or  personal  property — on  their  houses  and 
household  goods,  on  their  barns,  bins,  fences, 
tools,  machinery,  orchards,  crops,  livestock, 
etc.  In  the  second  place,  the  owners  of  unim- 
proved land  will  have  to  pay  more  than  under 
the  present  system — will  have  to  pay  as  much 
as  the  owners  of  improved  land  of  equal  value. 
What  a  relief  this  will  be  to  actual  farmers  can 
be  realized  only  when  it  is  known  to  what  a 
colossal  extent  the  owners  of  unimproved  lands 
now  escape  taxation. 

THE    LAND    SPECULATOR    AND    THE    SINGLE 
TAX 

How  the  Single  Tax  (limited  to  needs  of  gov- 
ernment) would  have  affected  seven  large  land 
•peculators  and  5,407  farmers  owning  both  im- 
proved and  unimproved  lands,  in  Clackamas 
County,  Oregon,  in  1910: 

SEVEN  LARGE  LAND  SPECULATORS 

Gen.   Prop.  Tax 
$41,993.96 

Single  Tax 
$60,454.86 

5,407  FARMERS 

(Owning  95,594.51  acres  of  improved  and 
213,609.09  acres  of  unimproved  land) 

Gen.  Prop.  Tax 
$196,525,92 

Single  Tax 
$159,559.01 

— From  "Clackamas  County  Assessments  and 
Taxes,"  by  W.  G.  Eggleston,  of  Portland, 
Oregon,  and  W.  S.  U'Ren,  of  Oregon  City, 
Oregon. 

Take,  for  example,  California.  "Throughout 
the  Sacramento  Valley,"  says  Edward  P.  B. 
Troy,  Taxation  Expert  of  San  Francisco 
(Single  Tax  Year  Book,  p.  400),  "the  taxes  of 
the  farmer  will  average  from  $5  to  $10  per 
acre;  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  from  $10  to 
$15.  Over  the  Tehachipi,  among  the  orange 
groves  of  Riverside  County,  I  found  the  small 
farmer's  tax  to  average  $20  per  acre,  and  many 
of  them  are  paying  $30,  $40,  and  even  $50  per 
acre  in  taxes." 

What  do  the  owners  of  the  unimproved  land 
—the  speculators — pay?  The  following  table 

86 


(see  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Commission 
of  Immigration  and  Housing  in  California,  p. 

327),  speaks  for  itself: 

Tax  per 

No.  of  Acre, 

Owner.                          County.       Acres.  Cents. 

Cent.    Pac.   Ry Siskiyou    _664,830  7 

Cent.   Pac.   Ry Yuba 22,061  6 

Cent.   Pac.   Ry Tehama 69,008  74 

Stovall-Wilcoxson  Co.Colusa 35,660  22 

Agoure    interests Ventura  __  16,000  8i 

So.    Pac.    Land    Co___Tulare   —  13,732  4} 

Kern  Co.  Land  Co___Kern 428,000  16 

Miller  &  Lux Kern 147,000  18 

So.  Pac.  Ry Kern 650,000  5 

But  it  may  be  said,  "Granted  that  the  Single 
Tax,  by  removing  all  burdens  from  improve- 
ments and  personal  property,  and  compelling 
all  holders  of  idle  land  to  pay  more,  will,  tem- 
porarily at  least,  reduce  the  actual  farmer's 
taxes,  will  not  this  burden  be  raised  when  the 
full  Single  Tax  is  applied? 

The  answer  is  in  the  negative.  For  just  as 
the  Single  Tax  approaches  its  limit,  will  the 
"margin  of  cultivation,"  be  raised.  In  other 
words,  just  as  the  pressure  of  land  taxation  is 
felt,  will  land  monopolists  throw  their  vacant 
holdings  on  the  market,  and  just  as  they  throw 
these  holdings  on  the  market,  will  economic 
rent  fall.  How  much  lower  the  pure  rent  of 
ground  will  be  under  the  full  Single  Tax  than 
it  is  now,  no  one,  to  be  sure,  can  say.  It  may 
be  one-third,  one-half,  or  it  may  be  more. 
Everything  seems  to  indicate,  however,  that  it 
will  eventually  be  reduced  to  the  actual  cost 
of  government.  In  any  event  men  who  own 
improved  lands  in  the  rural  districts  will  have 
lower  local  taxes  to  pay  under  the  full  Single 
Tax  than  they  have  at  present. 

"Had  the  Single  Tax  been  In  operation  [in 
1900]  the  farmers  of  Coos  county  (Oregon) 
would  have  paid  but  $13,456,  a  saving  of 
over  $51,OOO.  In  the  whole  state  of  Oregon 
the  farmers  would  have  saved  nearly  $1,800,- 
000  on  their  tax  bills  and  speculators  and 
public  service  corporations  would  have  paid 
that  much  more/' — Joseph  Fels,  in  "Success- 
ful Farming,"  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  February, 
1912. 

"A  recent  and  trustworthy  compilation 
from  the  official  tax  books  of  Claeknmas 
County,  Oregon,  shows  that  the  5,407  farmers 
of  that  county,  exclusive  of  tenant  farmer* 
and  those  who  hold  NO  improved  land — that 
Is  to  say,  the  working  owners  of  bona-fldc 
farms — would  pay  23.01  per  cent  less  in  taxea 
on  their  property  if  only  land  values  were 
taxed,  the  total  levy  remaining  as  at  pres- 
ent. .  .  .  It  is  believed  that  such  a  system 

87 


of  taxation  with  a  proper  distribution  of  state 
expenses  among:  the  municipalities,  would 
halve  the  taxes  of  Massachusetts  farmers."— 
Prof.  I..  J.  Johnson,  in  "Harper's  Weekly," 
July,  1913. 

The  following  statement  by  the  "Home- 
stead Loan  and  Land  League"  of  Missouri, 
shows  how  the  partial  Single  Tax  measure 
voted  on  in  that  state  in  1918,  would  have 
affected  the  farming  communities: 

"Am  to  where  this  tax  will  fall,  a  little 
reflection  will  show.  According  to  govern- 
ment reports*  it  is  clear  that  at  least  115,000 
of  the  farmers  of  Missouri  have  land  value 
exclusive  of  improvements  of  less  than  $3,000 
each.  They  will  pay  less  than  at  present, 
when  all  their  improvements,  machinery, 
stock,  etc.,  are  exempt.  The  85,000  tenant 
farmers  of  the  state  will  pay  no  tax  at  all. 
A  total  of  more  than  200,000  farmers  will 
pay  less  tax  than  now  and  many  none  at 
all.  Few  farmers  will  have  any  increase  in 
taxes  whatever. 

"There  are  millions  of  acres  of  land  lying 
idle  in  this  state,  held  out  of  use  for  specu- 
lation, and  upon  this  taxes  will  fall  heavily. 
This  land  will  be  opened  up  thereby  for  use. 
Only  about  24,000,000  acres  out  of  a  total  of 
43,000,000  in  Missouri  are  even  partially  im- 
proved, while  less  than  one  per  cent  of  the 
land  in  the  state  is  intensively  cultivated. 
Fifteen  million  acres  are  absolutely  idle. 

"Seventy  per  cent  of  the  land  within  the 
corporate  limits  of  Kansas  City  is  vacant. 
Land  in  the  business  section  of  the  city,  not 
used  for  homes,  is  worth  a  total  of  $175,000,- 
000.  These  vast  idle  and  valuable  tracts  of 
land  will  be  taxed.  Two  thousand  acres  in 
the  heart  of  Kansas  City  is  worth  more  than 
all  of  the  farm  land  in  Audrain,  Andrew, 
Bates,  Clariton,  Green,  Henry,  Knox,  Missis- 
sippi, Montgomery  and  Howard  Counties;  ten 
of  the  best  agricultural  counties  in  the  state 
combined,  and  will,  therefore,  under  this  pro- 
posal, pay  as  much  tax  as  all  the  farmers  in 
the  ten  counties  named. 

"The  same  is  true  of  St.  Louis.  There  is 
land  there  worth  $4,000,000  per  acre.  The 
mineral  land  of  eastern  and  southern  Mis- 
souri is  highly  valuable  and  this  tax  will 
force  those  who  hold  it  to  use  it,  or  permit 
others  to  do  so  on  just  terms." 


75_It  Will  Reduce  the  Cost  of  County  Govern- 
ment. 

The  cost  of  county  government  in  the  United 
States  in  1912,  amounted  to  $385,181,000.  At 
this  time  it  amounts  in  round  numbers  to  about 
$400,000,000  annually.  Much  of  this  will  be 
eliminated  when  the  Single  Tax  goes  into 
force.  For  the  land,  upon  which  to  build  pub- 
lic improvements — from  canals  to  court  houses 
— will  be  vastly  lower  in  price  than  it  is  now. 

88 


There  will  be  practically  no  poor  houses 
to  maintain  because  there  will  be  no  helplessly 
poor;  fewer  hospitals  and  Jails  and  reforma- 
tories to  support,  because  there  will  be  less 
sickness  and  less  crime.  The  immense  cost  of 
highway  construction  and  maintenance  will  be 
lowered  because  there  will  be  no  roads  to 
build  past  vacant  stretches  of  unimproved 
land — the  unimproved  land  will  be  opened  up 
to  whoever  wants  to  use  it.  There  will  be 
fewer  tax  assessors  and  tax  officials,  fewer 
police  and  officers  of  the  law,  fewer  lawyers 
and  judges  and  jurymen  to  wrangle  over  civil 
suits,  or  to  pass  sentence  upon  the  victims  of 
social  injustice.  Where  it  now  takes  four  hun- 
dred million  dollars  a  year  to  cover  the  ex- 
penditures of  county  government  in  the  United 
States,  two  hundred  fifty  or  three  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  will  easily  suffice  when  we  resort 
to  natural  taxation. 


WHAT      SOME     PROGRESSIVE      CANADIAN 
FARMERS  THINK  OP  THE  SINGLE  TAX. 

"Whereas,  the  adoption  of  the  Single  Tax 
and  the  removal  of  the  tax  on  improvement* 
would  be  of  immense  benefit  to  those  engaged 
In  agriculture;  be  it  therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  this  Institute  endeavor  to 
bring  before  the  proper  authorities  the  need 
for  such  removal,  with  an  urgent  request 
that  such  steps  may  be  taken  as  •will  bring 
about  the  change  desired/* — Resolution 
unanimously  adopted  at  the  Annual  Conven- 
tion of  the  Farmers'  Institute  of  British  Co- 
lumbia, held  at  Victoria,  January  23,  1913.  See 
"The  Public,"  February  7,  1913. 

"Resolved,  That  this  convention  of  Mani- 
toba Grain  Growers  strongly  urge  the  Do- 
minion Government  to  frame  a  fiscal  system 
of  national  taxation  that  will  bear  justly  on 
all  classes  affording  special  privileges  to 
none.  That  Is,  by  a  direct  taxation  of  all 
land  values  both  rural  and  urban,  including 
all  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation,  forest, 
mineral,  water  power  and  fisheries,  so  far  as 
these  resources  are  owned  or  operated  by 
private  or  corporate  interests,  with  a  surtax 
on  that  part  of  all  of  such  resources  as  are 
held  out  of  use  by  private  interests  for  spec- 
ulative purposes." — Resolution  Adopted  at  the 
Manitoba  Grain  Growers'  Convention  at 
Brandon,  January  13-15,  1915.  Carried  499  to 
1.  See  "The  Public,"  January  22,  1915. 


76— It  Will  Reduce  the  Cost  of  Farm  Trans- 
portation. 

How  will  the  Single  Tax  reduce  the  cost  of 
farm  transportation?  Simply,  as  has  previ- 
ously been  suggested,  by  compelling  all  own- 


ers  of  vacant  land  lying  close  to  markets  either 
to  use  it  or  to  let  go,  and  thus  permit  those 
forced  out  into  the  wilderness  by  our  present 
system  to  come  back  and  put  it  to  service. 

"Had  our  early  statesmen  understood  tfee 
laws  of  political  economy,  they  would  hove 
taken  for  public  purposes  the  annual  value 
conferred  upon  the  land  by  the  community. 
This  -would  have  produced  two  direct  effects. 
It  would  have  prevented  any  man  from  hold- 
ing more  land  than  he  could  use  to  good  pur- 
pose; and  it  would  have  prevented  any  Idle 
land  in  a  settled  community.  Hence,  the 
next  man  seeking  land  would  find  it  imme- 
diately connected  with  a  market.  Such  a 
system  of  settlement  would  have  kept  men 
within  reach  of  the  fullest  cooperation,  would 
have  saved  a  great  part  of  the  present  cost 
of  transportation,  and  would  have  made  the 
lot  of  each  newcomer,  whether  by  immigrant 
•hip  or  stork  express,  easier  than  those  that 
came  before." — Stoughton  Cooley,  in  "The 
Public,"  September  15,  1916. 

THE  HIGH   COST  OF  LAND   SPECULATION 

Could  an  estimate  be  made,  not  only  of  the 
annual  cost  of  constructing  and  keeping  in 
repair  all  public  improvements,  such  as  roads, 
highways,  bridges,  ditches,  telephone  lines, 
etc.,  past  the  half  billion  or  more  acres,  that 
are  held  out  of  use  between  farm  houses  and 
cities,  but  of  the  value  of  the  colossal  amount 
of  time,  trouble,  and  power — man,  horse,  and 
mechanical — involved  in  constantly  hauling 
merchandise  and  crops  past  this  huge  empire 
of  vacant  territory — could  an  estimate  be 
made  of  all  this  extra  cost,  it  would  amount 
annually  to  billions  of  dollars. 


77— It  Will  Solve  the  Kural  School  and  Church 
Problems, 

The  terrible  plight  of  the  rural  schools  of 
the  nation  is  little  realized.  Doctor  H.  B. 
Smith  of  Iowa  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  "more  illiteracy  is  to  be  found  in  rural 
America  than  in  urban  America,  despite  the 
fact  that  a  large  majority  of  illiterate  immi- 
grants settle  in  the  cities;"  moreover,  that  "a 
large  majority  of  the  rural  children  never  go 
farther  than  the  fifth  grade." 

90 


These  statements,  startling  though  they  are, 
square  with  those  uttered  by  Prof.  E.  T.  Fair- 
child,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of 
the  State  of  Kansas,  before  the  House  and 
Senate  Committees  on  Education,  Washington, 
D.  C.,  on  January  16,  1912.  Said  Prof.  Fair- 
child: 

"Of  the  12,000,000  rural  school  children  less 
than  25%  is  completing  the  work  of  the  grades. 
The  teaching  body  is  immature  and  lacks 
proper  training.  In  many  states  fully  one- 
half  of  the  rural  teachers  have  had  no  training 
beyond  the  eighth  grade.  Terms  are  too  short 
School  buildings  are  poor,  insanitary  and  ill- 
equipped.  The  school  enrollment  is  constantly 
decreasing.  The  supervision  is  wholly  inade- 
quate. High  school  privileges  are  denied  to 
the  great  majority  of  these  boys  and  girls. 
The  strong,  virile  rural  school  of  a  generation 
ago  has  gone  and  in  its  place  is  a  primary 
school,  weak  in  numbers  and  lacking  in  effi- 
ciency." 

The  decline  of  the  rural  church  is  equally 
marked.  "Wallace's  Farmer,"  of  Des  Moines, 
Iowa,  in  its  edition  of  August  13,  1915,  states: 

"While  we  do  not  have  definite  statistics  cov- 
third  of  the  churches  of  the  open  country  have 
died  in  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  that 
another  third  are  dying,  that  here  and  there 
is  one  decidedly  prosperous,  and  the  rest  not 
more  than  holding  their  own." 

Surely  it  is  superfluous  to  remark  that  these 
downward  tendencies  can  not  be  allowed  to 
continue;  that  unless  the  fundamental  cause 
which  induces  them  is  removed,  America  will 
witness  ere  long,  an  intellectual  and  moral 
deterioration  of  her  agricultural  population 
that  is  equalled  only  by  that  of  the  peasantry 
classes  of  Europe. 

As  to  the  cause  itself  there  can  be  no  dis- 
pute. It  lies  primarily  in  our  vicious  public 
policy  of  levying  tribute  upon  things  which  are 
distinctly  the  results  of  individual  effort,  and 
In  permitting  funds  which  are  plainly  social, 
to  flow  into  private  pockets — a  policy  which 
widens  the  gulf  between  the  landed  and  the 
landless,  which  condemns  millions  to  an 
existence  of  misery  and  poverty  and  grinding 
toil,  and  deprives  them  of  every  opportunity  to 
live  in  a  manner  befitting  civilized  life. 
When  this  vicious  policy  is  changed,  then,  but 
not  till  then,  will  the  downward  course  of  the 
rural  school  and  church  cease,  and  their  up- 
ward course  begin. 

91 


WHAT   SOME!   THOUGHTFUL   FARMERS    IN 

THE  UNITED  STATES  THINK  OF 

THE    SINGLE    TAX. 

"Resolved,  That  this  body  go  on  record  a» 
favoring  the  adoption  of  a  system  of  taxation 
whereby  personal  property  and  all  Improve- 
ments would  be  exempt  from  taxation  and 
the  bnrden  of  taxation  be  borne  by  land 
values  only." — Resolution  Adopted  by  Wash- 
ington State  Grange,  Centralia,  1916.  See 
"The  Public,"  May  19,  1916. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Farmers'  Institute  of 
Potter  County,  Texas,  do  recommend  that  all 
rental  values  of  vacant  lands  and  such  others 
as  are  not  put  to  their  best  use,  be,  as  are 
the  soldiers,  conscripted  into  service  of  the 
government  while  in  this  unprecedented 
emergency.  And  that  we  recommend  as  to 
methods  for  the  easiest,  cheapest,  and  fair- 
est, as  has  been  demonstrated  in  many  lo- 
calities, the  annual  taxation  of  every  parcel 
up  to  its  full  rental  value,  and  the  exemp- 
tion from  taxation  of  all  improvements  and 
personal  property  belonging  to  the  user."— 
Resolution  Adopted  by  the  Farmers'  Insti- 
tute of  Potter  County,  Texas,  May  20,  1917. 

"Resolved,  That  we  favor  the  abolition  of 
the  general  property  tax  and  favor  the  tax- 
ation of  the  value  of  land  Irrespective  of 
Improvements. 

"Resolved,  That  we  favor  the  tuxntion  of 
all  land  held  out  of  use  at  Its  full  selling  or 
•pecnlative  value." — Resolution  Adopted  at 
the  Annual  Convention  of  the  Maryland  State 
Grange,  Held  at  Easton  on  December  8,  1916. 
See  "The  Public,"  of  December  29,  1916. 


78— It  Will  Elevate  the  Agricultural  Life. 

Given  conditions  in  the  rural  districts  such 
as  the  Single  Tax  will  bring  about — conditions 
where  the  speculative  holding  of  idle  land  is 
destroyed  and  the  soil  made  cheap;  where  the 
power  of  landlordism  and  usury  is  broken,  and 
the  debt-ridden  tenants  liberated  from  a  cruel 
bondage;  where  agricultural  production  and 
marketing  may  be  carried  on  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  with  a  maximum  of 
efficiency  and  a  minimum  of  wastage;  where 
the  farming  classes  receive  more  for  what  they 
sell  and  pay  less  for  what  they  buy;  where 
government — federal,  state  and  local — has  been 
placed  on  a  most  economical  basis,  taxation 
equalized,  and  all  the  expenses  of  administra- 
tion cut  down;  where  the  community,  has,  be- 
cause of  the  elimination  of  vacant  spaces,  be- 
come more  compact,  the  roads  improved,  and 
the  educational  and  religious  institutions  set 
upon  a  sound  and  permanent  footing — given 
conditions  such  as  these  and  it  unavoidably 

92 


follows  that  the  social  life  In  the  rural  com- 
munities will  be  elevated  to  a  higher  and  better 
plane. 

"Were  all  the  taxes  on  the  land  and  the 
people-' *  land  free  to  the  landloNii,  then  none 
would  be  driven  Into  the  wilderness  to  naffer 
the  change*  of  climate  and  want  of  society, 
bat  those  who  desired  coald  then  settle 
nearer  to  their  kindred  and  friend*  and  en- 
Joy  the  blessings  of  friendship,  love,  and 
home  with  much  less  cost  and  Inconvenience." 
— Edwin  Burgess,  Forerunner  of  Henry 
George,  in  the  "Racine  Advocate,"  1859. 

"An  a  farmer  for  the  better  part  of  half  a 
century  I  want  to  tell  farmers  that  It  Is  to 
their  Interest  to  have  most  of  the  cost  of  the 
war  paid  by  a  tax  on  land  values." — C.  B. 

Kegley,  Late  Master  of  the  Washington  State 
Grange,  in  the  "Farmers'  Open  Forum." 


79— It  Will  Halt  the  Movement  to  the  Cities. 

"The  Single  Tax  would  stop  the  unnntnrnl 
flow  of  population  from  the  rural  districts  to 
the  cities,  and  make  life  in  both  healthier 
and  happier." — S.  S.  Craig,  in  "The  Arena," 
January,  1899. 

"The  depopulation  of  the  country  districts 
also  would  cease.  For  the  land  Is  used  to 
best  advantage  when  It  is  used  in  small 
areas  by  independent  owners.  The  taxation 
of  rent  would  force  landowners  to  allow  it 
•o  to  be  used  and  the  country  could  then 
again,  afford  ample  opportunities  for  a 
healthy,  profitable,  and  pleasurable  life."— 
Max  Hirsch,  "Democracy  Versus  Socialism," 
p.  402. 

"Rural  and  farm  life,  relieved  of  its  ab- 
normal and  well-nigh  crushing  tax  burdens, 
should  [under  the  Single  Tax]  assume  It* 
natural  attractiveness  to  human  beings  and 
the  abnormal  flow  to  the  cities  should  dimi- 
nish or  cease." — Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson,  in  "The 
American  Journal  of  Public  Health,"  June, 
1914. 

PART  IX 

80--It  Will  Remove  the  Opposition  to  Foreign 
Immigration— The  First  Cause  of  Interna- 
tional Irritation. 

There  are  four  great  causes  of  the  enmity, 
fear,  and  distrust  with  which  the  nations  of  the 
Old  World  view  the  United  States  of  America, 
All  of  these  great  causes  the  application  of  the 
Single  Tax  principle  will  remove. 

The  first  cause  is  our  policy  of  restricting 
immigration,  our  shutting  out  of  large  numbers 
of  those  who  apply  for  admission  with  the  ob- 
ject of  bettering  their  economic  and  social 
circumstances.  This  policy,  which  is  en- 
forced chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  un- 

93 


employment  down  and  wages  in  this  country 
as  high  as  possible,  will  naturally  be  aban- 
doned when  society  has  quit  the  taxation  of 
industry.  For  the  number  of  jobs  will  then 
constantly  exceed  the  number  of  men.  The 
supply  of  work  will  far  outrun  the  supply  of 
workers.  Wages  as  a  result  will  always  border 
on  the  value  of  the  full  product.  There  will 
thus  be  no  need  or  desire  on  the  part  of  our 
own  laborers  to  exclude  the  laborers  of  other 
countries  in  order  to  protect  themselves  from 
want  and  the  fear  of  want.  On  the  contrary, 
it  will  then  clearly  be  seen,  what  is  disbelieved 
now,  that  the  more  immigrants,  the  easier  it 
becomes  for  all  to  make  a  living.  Immigra- 
tion, therefore,  instead  of  being  longer  opposed, 
will  be  warmly  welcomed. 

"By  taking  economic  rent  for  public  pur- 
poses .  .  .  -we  shall  create  a  demand  for 
labor  which  will  solve  the  menacing  prob- 
demand  for  labor  will  make  wages  higher 
.  .  .  and  the  fear  of  deadly  competition 
being  removed,  the  Immigration  problem  will 
cease  to  be  a  problem  at  all,  and  workers 
from  other  lands  •will  be  welcome  to  aid  in 
the  production  of  wealth  the  natural  limits 
of  which  have  never  been  described." — F.  W. 
Garrison,  in  the  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  Decem- 
ber, 1913. 

81— It  Will  Remove  the  Opposition  to  Foreign 
Imports — The  Second  Cause  of  Interna- 
tional Irritation. 

The  second  cause  of  the  suppressed  feeling 
against  the  United  States  on  the  part  of  foreign 
nations,  is  our  maintenance  of  a  protective 
tariff,  our  keeping  out  of  the  products  that  the 
workers  of  other  nations  wish  to  make  and 
sell  to  us. 

This  obnoxious  policy  which  also  owes  its 
existence  to  the  desire  to  "protect  the  highly 
paid  American  laborer  from  the  pauper  laborer 
of  Europe,"  will,  like  the  immigration  policy, 
inevitably  be  abandoned  when  the  Single  Tax 
has  been  inaugurated.  For  not  merely  will  it 
then  be  perceived,  that,  with  opportunities  for 
employment  open  on  every  side,  and  wages 
therefore,  constantly  at  their  highest  level,  the 
American  workingman — as  a  producer — has 
nothing  to  lose  by  abandoning  it,  but  that  he 
has — as  a  consumer — a  great  deal  to  gain. 
While  sacrificing  nothing  either  in  the  way  of 
chances  for  employment  or  in  wages,  he  will 
profit  immensely  in  that  he  will  be  able  to  buy 
numerous  excellent  commodities  from  Europe, 
Asia,  and  elsewhere,  much  cheaper  than  he 
can  buy  the  same  kind  of  commodities  here. 

94 


Like  the  menacing  restrictions  on  foreign  Im- 
migration, therefore,  the  menacing  restrictions 
on  foreign  Imports,  will  be  crossed  off  the 
books. 

"The  application  of  rent  to  the  public  net-v- 
ice and  the  relief  of  every  Industry  from  tax- 
ation would  create  a  new  world  both  for  the 
producer  nnd  the  consumer.  .  .  .  The  1m- 
pnlftc  Riven  to  commerce  and  manufactures 
would  be  Irresistible.  A  home  market  would 
be  created  ten  tlnien  greater  than  that  of  all 
China  and  the  East."— Dr.  J.  H.  Stallard,  "The 
True  Basis  of  Economics,"  p.  98. 

82— It  Will  Remove  the  General  Hunger  for 
Foreign  Territory— The  Third  Cause  of  In- 
ternational Irritation. 

The  third  cause  of  the  suspicion  and  fear 
with  which  the  American  Republic  Is  looked 
upon  by  other  nations,  Is  the  keen  desire  mani- 
fested by  a  large  and  growing  part  of  our  pop- 
ulation for  more  territory.  It  is  true  that  our 
leaders  generally  deny  this.  But  the  denial, 
so  far  as  the  masses  are  concerned,  is  not  in 
good  form.  Our  language  shows  it.  Our  news- 
papers show  it.  Our  magazines  and  periodicals 
and  books  show  it.  Contrary  to  the  assertion 
of  statesmen  vast  and  increasing  numbers  of 
citizens  in  the  United  States  do  want  more  land 
for  colonization  purposes. 

From  whence  springs  this  unholy  desire  for 
more  land  and  more  territory?  It  springs 
fundamentally  from  the  belief  that  the  con- 
stantly tightening  economic  pressure  in  the 
country  is  due  to  "over-population,"  to  a  ten- 
dency of  the  "labor  supply  to  outrun  the  work 
supply,"  and  that  the  condition  of  the  working 
masses  at  home  can  be  improved  only  by  ex- 
tending our  boundaries,  by  "adding  Mexico," 
"annexing  Central  America,"  "taking  over 
Canada,"  etc.,  and  thus  permitting  our  surplus 
population  to  emigrate  into  the  new  provinces. 

The  great  fallacy  of  this  notion,  however,  can 
be  quickly  shown.  It  is  not  "over-population," 
that  is  responsible  for  the  poverty  of  the 
American  workingman,  but  "under-employ- 
ment."  His  wages  are  not  low  because  there 
are  "more  men  than  jobs,"  but  because  there 
are  "less  jobs  than  men."  To  cure  unemploy- 
ment, raise  wages,  and  abolish  poverty,  there- 
fore, it  is  not  necessary  to  secure  "additional 
territory";  it  is  only  necessary  to  remove  the 
obstacles  that  prevent  the  legitimate  use  of 
the  territory  we  already  possess. 

This  the  Single  Tax  will  do.  It  will  not 
merely  open  up  for  settlement  a  huge  empire 

95 


of  vacant  land  within  our  own  borders,  but  by 
Increasing  permanently  the  purchasing  power 
of  all  consumers,  will  create  a  condition  in 
which  the  work-supply  always  remains  in  ex- 
cess of  the  labor  supply.  Its  adoption  will  thus 
dispel  all  desire  on  the  part  of  our  citizens  for 
outside  colonies.  Our  speeches  and  literature 
will  be  forever  purged  of  all  suggestions  for 
territorial  expansion.  No  nation,  therefore, 
will  longer  have  the  slightest  occasion  to  im- 
pugn the  motives  or  distrust  the  actions  of 
this  greatest  of  all  Republics. 

''The  Single  Tax  will  dispel  the  keen  na- 
tional desire  for  territorial  expansion,  by 
forcing  on  the  markets  of  every  country 
adopting  It,  00  much  DOMESTIC  land  that 
the  need  to  colonize  FOREIGN  land  will  viiu- 
teh." — Ernest  Batten,  "The  Single  Tax,"  p.  14. 

88— It  Will  Remove  the  General  Hunger  for 
Foreign  Markets — The  Fourth  Canse  of  In- 
ternational Irritation. 

The  fourth  cause  of  the  prejudice  and  hatred 
nursed  in  the  hearts  of  our  neighbors  across 
the  seas  emanates  from  our  efforts  to  se- 
cure foreign  markets.  Under  our  present  ab- 
surd revenue  methods  we  can  supply  faster 
than  we  can  demand.  Our  "home  mar- 
ket" is  constantly  restricted.  We  are  perpetu- 
ally suffering  from  "over-production,"  or,  more 
accurately,  from  "under-consumption."  Unless 
therefore,  we  are  able  to  sell  our  surplus 
goods  in  the  unexploited  countries  of  Asia, 
Africa,  Australia,  Europe,  North  and  South 
America,  our  industries  are  in  danger  of  stand- 
ing idle,  and  our  laborers  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment. 

Out  of  this  dilemma  the  taxation  of  land 
values  only  can  deliver  us.  It  alone  can 
rid  us  of  the  evil  of  under-consumption, 
can  push  the  demand  for  goods  ahead  of  the 
ability  to  supply.  It  alone  can  create 
a  "home  market"  so  great  that  our  capital  and 
labor  will  not  need  to  "forcibly  invade"  the 
trading  grounds  of  other  peoples  thereby  in- 
curring the  jealousy,  wrath,  and  enmity  of  for- 
eign powers. 

"If,  in  all  countries,  those  vrho  wished  to 
use  the  resources  of  the  earth  paid  the  rent 
to  the  government,  which  exempted  all  the 
products  of  industry  from  taxation,  there 
would  be  such  a  home  market  created  that 
the  nations  would  not  have  'to  fight  for  the 
markets  of  the  world,'  and  custom  houses 
•would  not  stand  upon  their  borders  as  mon- 
uments to  the  enmity  of  nations/' — Dr.  Mary 
D.  Hussey,  at  the  Conference  of  Universal 
Peace  Union,  Buck  Hill  Falls  Inn,  Penn., 
September  7,  1912. 

96 


84— It  Will,  When  Applied  Universally,  Crush 
Militarism,  and  Disband  Armies  and  Navies. 

Militarism  owes  Its  existence  the  world  over, 
simply  to  the  fear  and  distrust,  the  hatred  and 
enmity,  that  one  nation  has  for  another.  Any- 
thing, therefore,  that  will  overcome  this  fear 
and  distrust,  this  hatred  and  enmity,  must 
necessarily  and  Inevitably  destroy  militarism. 

Now,  as  has  just  been  suggested,  this  mutual 
fear  and  distrust,  this  hatred  and  enmity  be- 
tween nations,  springs  in  Its  final  analysis, 
from  two  powerful  sources: 

(1)  From  the  desire  of  each  nation  to  pre- 
vent the  laborers  and  products  of  every  other 
nation  from  COMING  INTO  the  country,  and, 

(2)  From   the   hunger   of   each   nation   for 
new  colonies  and  new  markets  that  its  own 
laborers  and  products  may  GO  OUT. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  application  of 
the  Single  Tax  doctrine  in  the  United  States 
will  remedy  this  matter  so  far  as  this  country 
Is  concerned;  how  the  greatly  increased  ac- 
tivity of  capital  and  labor,  and  the  abolition  of 
poverty,  will  dissipate  the  eagerness  of  our 
citizens  for  additional  territory  and  outside 
markets,  and  cause  the  removal  of  all  restric- 
tions upon  immigrants  and  imports;  and  how 
this  furthermore  will  demonstrate  to  all  foreign 
powers,  not  only  our  perfect  peaceableness,  but 
our  sincere  friendship,  and  so  transform  their 
present  attitude  towards  us  from  one  of  sus- 
picion and  hostility  into  one  of  love  and  trust. 

But  the  same  results  that  will  follow  the 
adoption  of  the  Single  Tax  in  the  United  States 
will  follow  its  adoption  everywhere  else.  In 
each  country  where  its  far-reaching  prin- 
ciples are  Introduced,  the  vacant  lands  will  be 
opened  up  to  use,  industry  will  be  relieved  of 
a  burdensome  load  of  taxation,  capital  and 
labor  will  be  stimulated  into  fresh  and  whole- 
some activity,  and  poverty  will  disappear.  And 
with  poverty  gone,  with  the  commodity  market 
constantly  under-supplied,  employment  beck- 
oning from  every  hand,  and  wages  up  to  the 
full  value  of  the  service  performed,  no  coun- 
try will  yearn  for  more  territory  or  new  mar- 
kets to  which  its  native  population  can  emi- 
grate and  its  industrial  output  flow,  or  feel 
compelled  in  self-defense  to  close  its  ports  to 
laborers  and  the  products  of  these  laborers 
from  other  areas  of  the  globe.  No  country, 
therefore,  will  longer  possess  the  least  excuse 
for  challenging  the  motives  of  the  men  of  other 

97 


countries  or  to  watch  their  language  and  ac- 
tions with  feelings  of  the  gravest  apprehension 
and  distrust. 

The  foundation  upon  which  the  institution  ol 
militarism  rests,  having  thus  everywhere  been 
undermined,  militarism  must  crumble  like  a 
house  of  cards. 

"The  abolition  of  tariff*  and  the  recognition 
of  the  right  to  the  land  of  the  earth  which 
all  its  inhabitants  possess  will  at  last  lay  the 
specter  of  war,  and  lead  to  the  abandonment 
of  an  armed  peace  which  is  only  less  crush- 
Ing  and  brutalizing  than  war  itself." — F.  W. 
Garrison,  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly,"  Decem- 
ber. 1913. 

85— It  Will,  When  Applied  Universally,  Abolish 
War. 

There  can  be  no  wars  when  there  are  no 
standing  armies  and  navies;  no  standing  arm- 
ies and  navies  when  there  is  no  insecurity  or 
danger;  no  insecurity  or  danger  when  there  IB 
no  interference  with  "life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness;"  no  interference  with  "life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  when 
capital  and  labor  are  free  and  untrammelled, 
and  natural  opportunities  are  within  the  reach 
of  all. 

"Single  Taxers,  pointing  to  the  cause  or 
causes  of  war,  are  confident  that  free  access 
to  the  use  of  the  earth  and  the  abolition  of 
tariffs  would  result  in  making  mankind  free 
from  the  age-long  slavery  to  governments  of 
princes  and  king»  and  lords  or  privilege,  that 
the  bringing  of  men  closer  together  in  the 
association  of  ideas  and  the  greater  harmony 
of  Interests  would  reveal  the  identity  <wf 
aims;  would  substitute  a  natural  for  an  un- 
natural mode  of  revenue;  would  reveal  how 
new  territory  may  be  conquered  by  peaceful 
means;  would  do  away  with  those  misunder- 
standings between  workers  of  different  na- 
tionalities that  are  the  fruit  of  ignorance, 
excluslveness  and  economic  slavery*  «nd  dis- 
sipate those  curious  philosophies  of  racial 
hatreds  and  national  presumptions  which  find 
a  lodgment  among  men  chiefly  because  the 
masses  are  poor  and  disinherited." — Joseph 
Dana  Miller,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Year  Book," 
p.  260. 

"With  the  inauguration  of  this  system  of 
[Single]  taxation  .  .  .  the  direct  causes  of 
all  Internecine  and  International  troubles  and 
disputes  would  be  removed}  wars  and  rumors 
of  wars  would  trouble  mankind  no  longer." 
—Lewis  H.  Berens,  "Toward  the  Light,"  p. 
209. 

98 


PART  X 

86— It  WD1  Force  Into  Productive  Industry 
Hundreds  of  Thousands  of  Useless  Real 
Estate  Speculators,  Monopolists,  Land- 
lords, and  Similar  Parasites  on  Capital  and 
Labor. 

"The  abolition  of  the  unnatural  and  im- 
moral Inw  by  which  an  Increasing  number  of 
economically  useless  people  are  enabled  to 
live  in  ease  and  idleness  without  contribut- 
ing either  services  or  commodities  to  the  so- 
cial organism  .  .  .  can  only  be  affected  by 
appropriating  all  economic  rent  to  the  serv- 
ice of  those  who  create  it,  that  is  to  say,  the 
whole  people.  This  the  taxation  on  land 
values  will  accomplish/' — John  Ferguson,  in 
"The  Westminster  Review,"  December,  1905. 

"The  opponents  of  the  Single  Tax  consist 
of  the  easy-money  fraternity,  polite  grafters, 
but  grafters  nevertheless — the  men  who  want 
something  for  nothing  |  who  hunger  to  gather 
where  others  have  sown;  men  who  wish  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  labor  without  the  nniioy- 
ance  of  laboring." — James  R.  Brown,  "Pro- 
ceedings of  Seventy-Fifth  Annual  Meeting  of 
New  York  State  Agricultural  Society. 

A    NON-ESSENTIAL,    CITIZEN 
The    Plutocrat— "Just    to    Think    That    It's 
Through  the  Frugality,  Industry  and  Love  of 
Home   of   the    Small   Householder   That   I   Get 
My  Enormous   Wealth." 


— From   "The  Oregronian"   of  November  10,  1906. 
(Reproduced.) 

99 


•The  Single  Tax  takes  all  the  sweetness 
out  of  idleness  and  speculation.  That  is  the 
why,  and  the  only  why,  that  shrewd  idlers 
and  speculators,  who  are  largely  influential 
in  legislation,  stay  awake  twenty-four  hours 
in  the  day  ready  to  slug  the  slightest  move  in 
the  direction  of  using  community  earnings 
alone  for  community  expense." — Charles  T. 
Root,  President  Root  Newspaper  Association, 
New  York  City. 

"By  taxing  all  the  water  out  of  land  values 
— 'water'  being  the  value  added  by  the  own- 
er's ability  to  monopolize  a  community  need 
and  to  capitalize  that  monopoly — we  should 
do  away  with  unearned  incomes,  increase  pro- 
duction, open  opportunity  and  enthrone  la- 
bor and  service  as  the  only  qualifications  en- 
titling men  and  women  either  to  competen- 
cies or  to  the  respect  of  their  fellows." — Mrs. 
Joseph  Fels,  in  "The  Public,"  April  20,  1918. 


87— It  Will  Release  for  Productive  Purposes 
Scores  of  Thousands  of  Tax  Assessors,  Tax 
Collectors,  Detectives,  Policemen,  Jail 
Keepers,  Social  Workers,  Charity  Dis- 
pensers, and  Laborers  Engaged  in  Building 
and  Keeping  in  Repair  Prisons  and  Reform- 
atories, Almshouses,  Hospitals,  and  Asy- 
lums for  the  Sick  and  Insane. 

"The  administration  of  the  criminal  law, 
with  all  its  paraphernalia  of  policemen,  de- 
tectives, prisons  and  penitentiaries,  would, 
like  the  administration  of  the  civil  law,  cease 
[under  the  Single  Tax]  to  make  such  a  drain 
We  should  get  rid,  not  only  of  many  judges, 
bailiffs,  clerks  and  prison  keepers,  but  of  the 
great  host  of  lawyers,  who  are  now  main- 
tained at  the  expense  of  producers;  and  talent 
now  wasted  in  legal  subtleties  would  be 
turned  to  higher  pursuits." — Henry  George, 
"Progress  and  Poverty,"  Book  IX,  Chap.  IV. 

88— It  Will  Release  for  Productive  Purposes 
Untold  Numbers  of  Doctors,  Lawyers, 
Judges  and  Jurymen. 

••[With  the  public  appropriation  of  rent] 
all  such  restrictive  legislation  as  that  against 
excessive  hours  of  labor  and  against  un- 
healthy and  overcrowded  workrooms,  as  well 
as  laws  directed  to  ensure  the  safety  of  the 
workers  and  to  fix  a  minimum  of  wages  will 
become  objectless.  For  the  workers  being 
mostly  free  to  work  for  a  capitalist,  or  to 
employ  themselves,  stronger  in  competition 
than  capitalists  when  capital  can  not  be  in- 
vested in  monopolies,  will  not  enter  employ- 
ments which  do  not  offer  favorable  condi- 
tions in  all  these  respects.  Capitalists  will 
either  have  to  comply  with  the  standards 
upon  the  vital  force  and  attention  of  society, 
fixed  by  the  workers,  or  pay  higher  wages  to 
compensate  for  conditions  below  this  stand- 
ard."— Max  Hirsch,  "Democracy  Versus  So- 
cialism," p.  401. 

100 


89— It  Will  Release  for  t'roductiTe  Purpose* 
Hundreds  of  Thousands  of  Soldiers,  Sailors, 
Ship  Builders,  Mechanics,  and  Laborers 
Employed  In  Military  Establishments,  and 
In  the  Upkeep  and  Manufacture  of  Muni- 
tions of  War. 

SOME     BRIEF     ENDORSEMENTS     OF     TUB 
SINGLE  TAX  BT  MEN  OF  INTER- 
NATIONAL  FAME. 
"I    believe    In    the    Idea    of    Single    Tax."— 

Newton  D.   Baker,   Secretary  of   War,   United 
States. 

"I  am  a  great  admirer  of  the  doctrine  of 
Henry  George." — Dr.  Sun  Yat  Sen,  First 
President  of  the  Chinese  Republic. 

"I  consider  the  desideratum  of  a  good  ad- 
ministration to  be  the  simplification  of  the 
tax  regime — the  Single  Tax." — Dr.  Roque 
Saenz  Pena,  Late  President  of  the  Argentine 
Republic. 

"A  land  value  tax  could  be  made  to  yield 
a  large  revenue*  could  not  be  passed  on  to 
the  shoulders  of  the  workers,  would  pro- 
mote access  to  land  on  more  favourable 
terms  than  those  hitherto  obtainable,  would 
stimulate  production  and  open  up  additional 
opportunities  for  employment,  thereby  re- 
ducing prices  and  increasing  wages  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  which,  together  with 
Free  Trade,  would  prevent  the  unemploy- 
ment that  threatens  at  the  close  of  the 
war." — J.  Dundas  White,  Member  Parliament, 
England. 

'  "There  is  no  sounder  social  or  economic 
policy  than  the  taxation  of  'unearned  incre- 
ments."— Dr.  Ludwig  Wllhelm  Schrameier. 
Actual  Privy  Counselor  to  the  Admirality, 
Germany. 

"I  am  in  perfect  agreement  with  the  phil- 
osophy of  Henry  George." — Professor  Dr. 
Adolph  Wagner,  Actual  Privy  Counselor,  Ex- 
cellency and  Member  of  the  Prussian  Upper 
House,  Germany. 

"I  have  the  utmost  faith  in  Henry  George 
and  his  Single  Tax."— Mr.  V.  Ullman,  For- 
mer  President  of  the  Norwegian  Parliament, 
Norway. 

"There  is  but  one  fundamental  reform— 
that  proposed  by  Henry  George." — Dr.  S.  N. 

Starcke,  Member  Parliament,  Denmark. 

"No  better  reform  could  be  instituted  than 
the  taxation  of  land  values." — Carl  Lindhagen, 
Mayor  of  Stockholm  and  Member  of  Parlia- 
ment, Sweden. 

•'It  appears  to  me  that  the  fundamental 
idea,  the  platform  of  a  great  national  party, 
can  today  only  be  that  of  the  radical  reform 
of  our  stifling  tax  regime.  This  revision  must 
be  guided  by  the  principles  of  the  Single  Tax 
of  Henry  George." — Dr.  Octavio  De  Souza  Car- 
niero,  Mayor  of  Nlctheroy,  Capital  of  the 
State  of  Rio  De  Janerio,  Brazil. 

101 


"There  should  be  no  taxation  upon  the 
products  of  human  industry/'  —  Sir  George 
Grey,  New  Zealand. 


system  of  raising;  public  revenues 
from  land  values  and  exempting  improve- 
ments is  right  and  Just."  —  Sir  George  Reid, 
New  South  Wales. 

"The  establishment  of  Single  Tax  in  Russia 
seems  to  me  the  only  just  solution  of  the  land 

problem."  —  Count  Ilya  Tolstoy,  Russia. 

"I  hope  to  see  societies  formed  calling  upon 
the  Legislature  to  revalue  the  land  and  put 
a  taxation  upon  it  in  proportion  to  the  wants 
of  the  state."  —  Richard  Cobden,  England,  1841. 

"I  maintain  that  taxation  \vhich  seeks  these 
ends  [the  destruction  of  landlordism  and  the 
upbuilding  of  enterprise]  ,  is  taxation  which  is 
not  only  sound  in  economic  principle,  but 
which  conforms  to  the  eternal  and  immutable 
principles  of  social  Justice."  —  H.  H.  Asquith, 
Ex-Premier,  England. 

90—  It  Will  Reduce  All  Governmental  Expenses 
—Federal  and  State  As  Well  As  County  and 
Municipal. 

We  have  previously  observed  how  the  Single 
Tax  will  reduce  the  expenses  of  county  and 
municipal  governments.  It  remains  only  to 
see,  how,  in  the  administration  of  state  and 
national  governments,  it  will  have  the  same 
effect.  In  the  construction  of  all  public  im- 
provements the  land  required  will  cost  but 
little;  there  will  be  fewer  hospitals,  asylums, 
charitable  institutions,  reformatories,  and  peni- 
tentiaries to  maintain,  for  destitution,  sickness, 
and  crime,  will  be  at  a  minimum;  there  will  be 
no  naval  and  military  establishments  to  sup- 
port, because  the  need  for  them  will  be  swept 
away;  there  will  be  fewer  legislators  and  less 
legislation;  fewer  courts,  fewer  lawyers,  fewer 
Jurymen,  fewer  secret  service  agents,  fewer  offi- 
cials of  every  variety,  for  the  conditions  that 
now  make  these  necessary  will  be  at  an  end. 
The  sum  that  the  taxpayers  of  the  nation  will 
thus  save  in  the  upkeep  of  their  state  and  fed- 
eral governments  will  amount  to  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  a  year. 

A     FEW    TESTIMONIALS     OF     PROMINENT 

AMERICAN   STATESMEN,  REFORMERS, 

PUBLICISTS,   CLERGYMEN  AND 

MEN   OF  LETTERS. 

"A  policy  of  taxation  which  in  the  first 
place  compels  every  franchise  value,  patent 
value,  and  land  value,  to  pay  in  proportion  to 
its  value,  as  other  values  pay,  is  absolutely 
right."  —  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott. 

"Poverty  and  social  unrest  will  be  with  us 
until  monopoly  is  taxed  to  death."  —  Ex-Con- 
gressman Warren  Worth  Bailey. 

102 


"I  have  lontz  been  a  worker  for  the  Single 
Tax  cauMe." — Daniel  C.  Beard. 

"Henry  George  ban  always  been  to  me  one 
of  the  supreme  heroes  of  humanity." — Edwin 
Markham. 

"Equity  In  human  relations  Insist*  that  we 
make  monopoly  values  the  exclusive  basis  of 
taxation." — Bishop  Charles  D.  Williams. 

"I  am  persuaded  that  the  principle  of 
Henry  George  Is  right." — Franklin  K.  Lane, 
Secretary  of  Interior. 

"The  taxation  of  Industrial  activities  Is  In- 
defensible."— Norman  Hapgood. 

"The  whole  rental  fund  should  be  appro- 
priated to  common  or  public  uses." — The  Late 
Rev.  Edward  McGlynn. 

"I  can  not  disagree  with  Henry  George." — 

Justice  Louis  D.  Brandeis. 

"To  remove  all  taxation  from  Improve- 
ments and  personal  property  and  replace  the 
burden  on  the  value  of  land,  would  be  to 
cleanse  the  social  organism  from  top  to  bot- 
tom."— Grace  Isabel  Colbron. 

"The  taking  of  the  entire  rental  value  of 
land  by  taxation  Is  in  harmony  with  the  high- 
est principles  of  government." — Judge  Jas. 
G.  Maguire. 

"When  the  burden  of  taxation  has  been  de- 
flected from  Industry  to  ground  rents  then 
we  will  be  free  men." — Judson  King:. 

"Tax  privilege  up  to  its  full  value  and  priv- 
ilege will  give  up  the  ghost." — James  W. 
Bucklin. 

"Without  the  Single  Tax  the  rehabilita- 
tion of  Europe  is  an  economic  impossibility." 

— Mrs.  Joseph  Fels. 

"There  is  no  questioning  the  wisdom  of 
raising  the  public  funds  from  land  values 
only." — Congressman  Robert  Grosser. 

"Monopoly,  and  monopoly  alone,  should  fur- 
nish the  public  revenues." — W.  G.  Eggleston. 

"Taxing  monopoly  values  for  government 
uses  seems  to  me  a  most  excellent  policy."— 

Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey. 

"There's  freedom  in  the  Single  Tax.  That's 
why  I  advocate  it." — Amos  R.  E.  Pinchot. 

"The  application  of  George's  theory  of  tax- 
ation is  sorely  needed." — Thomas  Mott  Os- 
borne. 

"It  is  criminal  to  place  burdens  on  capital 
and  labor  and  allow  privilege  to  escape." — 

J.  H.  Barry. 

"If  you  want  to  know  how  to  elevate  the 
condition  of  the  working  classes,  ask  the 
disciples  of  Henry  George."— Ella  Wheeler 
Wilcox. 

"Single  Tax  is  right."— Ex-Senator  R.  F. 
Pettigrew. 

103 


"I  believe  that  society  should  raise  its  reve- 
nue from  monopoly,  not  the  products  of  hu- 
man labor."  —  John  Moody. 

"Unquestionably,  the  taxation  of  land  val- 
ue* Is  highly  to  be  desired."  —  George  Foster 
Peabody. 

"Tax  the  unearned  rents  of  the  earth.  Let 
the  products  of  labor  alone."—  William  Ma- 
rion Reedy. 

"The  good  effects  of  the  Single  Tax  would 
be  hard  to  overestimate."  —  Lincoln  Steffens. 


"This  proposition  [the  Single  Tax]  will  free 
the  land  to  labor,  reduce  rents,  open  unlimited 
opportunities  for  all,  and  reduce  the  cost  ol 
living."  —  Laurie  J.  Quinby. 

"A  permanent  democracy  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion without  the  taxation  of  land  values." 
—  Herbert  Quick. 

"Where  does  Mr.  Guggenheim  get  his 
money  anyway?  Out  of  the  ground,  doesnt 
he?  Well,  I  hold  that  all  that  should  go  back 
to  the  state."  —  Henry  Ford. 

"It  is  needless  for  me  to  say  how  much  I 
wish  the  Single  Tax  movement  success."  — 

James  K.  Hackett. 

"You  may  tinker  with  the  tariff, 

And    make    some   simple    gains; 
You  may  put  on  tolls  or  take  'em  off, 

Inducing    party    pains; 
You  may  monkey  with  the  money, 

But  the  lack  of  it  remains; 
For    the    Mother    of    Monopoly 

Is  laughing  as  she  reigns." 

—  Edmund  Vance  Cooke. 


PART  XI 
91— It  Will  Conserve  the  Fertility  of  the  SoiL 

Soil  conservation  Is  more  a  matter  of  eco- 
nomic readjustment  than  of  education.  The 
worst  "soil  robbers"  are  invariably  the  home- 
less, wandering  farmers — the  rack-rented  ten- 
ants of  the  nation — whose  chief  concern  is  to 
pay  the  annual  tribute  to  their  absentee  land- 
lords. These  are  mainly  the  ones  who  "mine" 
the  soil  instead  of  tilling  it,  and  who  ruth- 
lessly sap  the  ground  of  its  fertility  without 
making  provision  for  any  return.  When,  there- 
fore, this  pernicious  system  is  stopped,  when 
each  farmer  is  furnished  abundant  opportunity 
to  secure  his  own  permanent  home,  and  a  sin- 
cere interest  in  the  community  in  which  he 
lives  is  thus  aroused,  the  most  serious  difficul- 
ties in  the  way  of  soil  conservation  will  be 
gone. 

SOME  PROFESSIONAL  REMARKS. 
"The   Single   Taxer  is   fundamentally   right 
in  his  declaration  that  public  revenues  should 
be  derived  so  far  as  is  possible  from  the  so- 

104 


clal  estates — from  Incomes  not  due  to  Indi- 
vidual effort  in  the  production  of  social  serv- 
ice."— Prof.  H.  J.  Davenport,  Missouri. 

"The  community  linn  created  the  value  that 
resides  in  land,  and  whoever  usurp*  the  own- 
ership of  it  deals  a  blow  at  the  community.**  J 

— Prof.  J.  B.  Clark,  New  York. 

"The  interests  of  stood  government  demand 
that  public  revenues  be  raised  from  monopoly 
values  only." — Prof.  Scott  Nearlngr,  Ohio. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  a  fundamental  require- 
ment in  the  upbuilding  of  a  state."— Prof. 
Louis  Wallls,  Illinois. 

"We  must  keep  hammering  away  for  the 
principle*  of  Henry  George."— Prof.  J.  H.  Dll- 
lard,  West  Virginia. 

"A  gradual  increase  in  the  proportion  of 
municipal  taxation  that  falls  on  land,  as  dis- 
tinguished froiu  improvements  and  different 
forms  of  personal  property,  is  much  to  be  de- 
sired."—Prof.  H.  R.  Seager,  New  York. 

"The  adoption  of  George's  Single  Tax  I  con- 
sider the  most  urgent  reform  of  this  genera- 
tion."— Prof.  R.  B.  Brinsmade,  Mexico. 

"One  may  certainly  conclude  with  Prof. 
Seager,  that  a  gradual  increase  in  the  muni- 
cipal taxation  that  falls  on  land,  as  distin- 
guished from  improvements  and  different 
forms  of  personal  property,  Is  much  to  be 
desired."— Prof.  Charles  A.  Beard,  New  York. 

"When  you  tax  land  values  you  strike  at 
the  root  of  our  worst  economic  disorders."— 

Dr.   J.   W.   Slaughter,   Pennsylvania. 

"To  turn  the  golden  stream  of  economic 
rent  partly  or  mostly  into  the  state's  treasury 
where  it  would  relieve  the  public  of  taxation 
in  burdensome  forms,  seems  to  be  extraordi- 
nary desirable." — Prof.  E.  B.  Andrews,  Rhode 
Island. 

"I  consider  the  socialization  of  the  "un- 
earned increment'  of  prime  importance."— 
Prof.  John  Dewey,  New  York. 

"I  have  long  been  of  the  opinion  that  the 
nntaxing  of  industry  is  a  step  in  the  right 
direction." — Prof.  John  R.  Commons,  Wis- 
consin. 

"The  socialization  of  ground  values  would 
produce  far-reaching  consequences." — Prof. 
Marion  Mills  Miller,  New  York. 

"I  have  long  been  interested  in  Henry 
George  and  the  Single  Tax." — Prof.  Harold  C. 
Goddard,  Pennsylvania. 

"We  want  the  value  that  attaches  to  the 
earth  and  we're  going  to  get  it." — Prof.  Earl 
Barnes,  Pennsylvania  . 

"The  taxation  of  economic  rent  appears  to 
me  as  a  sound  and  just  policy." — Dr.  David 
Starr  Jordan,  California. 

"The  Single  Tax  movement  is  not  simply 
the  propagation  of  a  new  tax  device,  but  the 
proclamation  of  a  new  social  order." — Prof. 
Walter  Rauschenbusch,  New  York. 

105 


"The  Single  Tax  sounds  Utopian  only  be- 
cause our  conceptions  are  distorted  by  lon*c 
contemplation  of  nothing  but  economic  mal- 
adjustment. When  its  reasonableness  is  once 
seen,  effective  steps  toward  its  realization 
can  not  long  be  delayed." — Prof.  Lewis  J. 
Johnson,  Massachusetts. 

"Since  the  ground  rent  of  land  is  a  social 
product,  it  is  Just  to  take  at  least  enough  of 
ft  in  taxation  to  meet  the  expenses  of  gov- 
ernment."— Prof.  F.  Spencer  Baldwin,  Massa- 
chusetts. 

92 — It  Will  Conserve  the  Forests  and  Minimize 
the  Danger  From  Flood,  Fire,  and  Soil 
Erosion. 

The  extremely  disastrous  effect  of  our  pres- 
ent mode  of  taxation  upon  the  woods  and 
forests  of  the  nation  can  hardly  be  overstated. 
Directly  and  indirectly  it  has  been  the  cause 
of  the  needless  destruction  of  untold  millions 
of  acres  of  timber.  In  the  first  place,  by  per- 
mitting speculation,  or  the  withholding  of  till- 
able land  from  use,  it  has  prevented  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  pioneer  farmers  from  locating 
in  the  unwooded  sections  of  the  country  and 
forced  them  into  the  wooded  parts.  Here,  to 
prepare  their  ground  for  cultivation,  they  have 
been  forced  to  cut  down  the  trees  and  burn 
them  up — enormous  areas  of  excellent  forests 
being  thus  cleared  away  and  sent  up  in  smoke. 
In  the  second  place,  by  taxing  the  trees  them- 
selves, there  has  been  a  pronounced  tendency 
everywhere  to  encourage  the  cutting  down  of 
the  trees  ALREADY  STANDING,  and  to  dis- 
courage the  planting  of  NEW  ONES. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Not  merely  has  the 
existing  tax  scheme,  by  thus  denuding  the 
hills  and  mountain  sides  of  their  timber,  en- 
dangered the  nation's  future  supply  of  lum- 
ber; it  has  resulted  in  a  train  of  evils  so  far 
reaching  in  its  consequences  as  to  stagger  the 
Imagination.  First,  it  has  vastly  increased  tne 
possibility  of  forest  fires,  by  allowing  the  small 
underbrush  to  spring  up;  second,  it  has  multi- 
plied manyfold  the  chances  for  floods,  by  per- 
mitting the  rapid  melting  of  snows;  third,  it 
has  restricted  the  opportunities  for  irrigation, 
by  letting  the  water  run  off  before  it  is  needed; 
fourth,  it  has  enfeebled  the  waterpowers  of  the 
country  by  allowing  the  streams  to  become  too 
high  at  some  seasons  and  too  low  at  others; 
and  fifth,  it  has  interfered  with  navigation  by 
choking  the  rivers  with  the  silt  and  fertility  of 
thousands  of  farms — the  silt  and  fertility 
washed  down  by  the  raging  torrents. 

That  the  Single  Tax  can  correct  all  these 

106 


abuses  of  the  past  is  too  much  to  expect.  That 
it  will,  however,  prevent  a  continuation  of  them 
in  the  future,  is  quite  certain.  First,  by  break- 
ing the  monopoly  of  agricultural  land,  it  will 
make  it  unnecessary  for  men  who  want  land  to 
take  the  grimy  work  of  clearing;  moreover,  it 
will  permit  those  who  are  already  there  to 
return,  if  they  wish,  and  take  up  the  more  de- 
sirable land  in  the  untimbered  sections.  Sec- 
ond, there  will  be  no  tax  on  the  trees  them- 
selves, unless,  perhaps,  a  stumpage  tax  be  Im- 
posed on  those  of  virgin  growth.  Every  In- 
ducement to  cut  down  trees  before  they  are 
mature  will  thus  be  taken  away,  and  every  en- 
couragement to  plant  new  trees  given. 

And  with  the  reforestation  of  the  denuded 
slopes  and  plateaus  of  the  country  thus  made 
possible,  will  not  the  fearful  waste  now  going 
on,  largely  be  avoided?  Naturally,  there  will 
be  less  danger  from  forest  fires,  for  in  pro- 
portion as  the  trees  grow  up,  the  underbrush 
will  disappear.  There  will  be  less  injury  from 
floods,  for  the  winter  snows,  instead  of  melting 
at  once,  will  melt  gradually.  There  will  be 
better  opportunities  for  irrigation,  for  the  bulk 
of  mountain  water  will  not  come  down  until 
late  in  the  summer.  There  will  be  more  avail- 
able waterpower  for  the  flow  of  streams  will 
be  steadier.  Finally,  navigation  will  be  im- 
proved, for  there  will  be  less  erosion  of  the 
soil,  less  mud  and  silt  washed  into  the  rivers 
from  the  farms  and  gardens  in  the  valleys 
above. 

9S— It  Will  Conserve  the  Nation's  Coal,  Oil  and 
Mineral  Resources. 

The  taxation  of  land  values  will  conserve 
the  natural  resources  of  coal,  oil  and  minerals 
by  lessening  the  total  need  of  such  products. 
Think,  for  example,  of  the  great  waste  of  metal 
and  fuel  involved  in  maintaining  a  vast  trans- 
portation system  through  an  empire  of  vacant 
land.  Think  of  the  iron  it  takes  to  lay  the 
rails,  to  build  the  bridges,  to  construct  the 
locomotives,  and  to  keep  them  constantly  in  re- 
pair. Think,  too,  of  the  large  amount  of  coal 
and  oil  it  requires  to  keep  these  locomotives 
running  through  this  same  vacant  territory. 
Think  of  all  these  things  and  then  say,  if  you 
will,  that  the  taxation  of  land  values,  which 
will  eliminate  the  speculator  and  make  society 
more  compact,  will  not  largely  stop  the  wast- 
age of  our  natural  resources. 

107 


94— It  Will  Eliminate  the  Danger  of  Ultimate 
Over-population  of  the  Earth, 

That  "population  tends  to  increase  faster 
than  the  means  of  subsistence,"  and  that  "the 
globe  is  now  overcrowded,"  are  notions  which, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  are  entertained 
by  millions  of  people.  But  these  notions,  ex- 
ceedingly popular  though  they  are,  are  not 
merely  without  foundation;  they  are  prepos- 
terous. The  truth  is  that  the  earth  as  yet  has 
scarcely  been  scratched.  If  we  may  believe 
the  testimony  of  statisticians  and  scientists 
the  earth  can,  under  intelligent  management 
and  within  the  limit  of  knowledge  of  men  now 
living,  easily  feed,  clothe,  and  shelter,  from 
twenty-five  to  seventy-five  times  as  many 
human  beings  as  it  now  contains. 

But  it  may  be  said,  "Granted  that  the  globe 
is  not  yet  suffering  from  a  redundancy  of  pop- 
ulation; granted,  further,  that  it  has  no  need 
to  fear  a  lack  of  'elbow-room'  for  centuries  and 
perhaps  millenniums  to  come,  will  not  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  increase  of  population,  however, 
ultimately  bring  this  condition  about?" 

But  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  present  rate 
of  increase  of  population  will  always  be  main- 
tained. On  the  contrary,  there  are  excellent 
grounds  for  believing  that  eventually  it  will 
decline,  or  at  least  be  brought  to  a  standstill. 
For  it  has  now  been  definitely  established,  as 
Dr.  Adam  Smith  ("Wealth  of  Nations") 
Book  I,  Chap.  VIII) ,  pointed  out  more  than  one 
hundred  forty  years  ago,  that  "poverty  is  favor- 
able to  generation."  "A  poor  man  for  children" 
is  an  ancient  and  popular  aphorism. 

Robert  Hunter   ("Poverty,"  p.  310),  says: 

"It  is  true,  notwithstanding  the  higher  death 
rate,  that  the  poorer,  if  not  the  poorest  classes 
are  the  great  population-producing  classes." 

Prof.  Irving  Fisher  ("National  Vitality;  Its 
Wastes  and  Conservation")  says: 

"Degenerates  have  large  families.  From  a 
study  of  150  degenerate  families  Doctor  Tred- 
gold  found  that  the  average  number  of  children 
per  family  was  7.3,  while  the  normal  average 
for  the  country  at  large  [England]  is  4."  On 
the  other  hand  "Ronald  M.  Byrnes  shows  that 
the  fecundity  of  Yale  graduates  has  steadily 
diminished  from  5.7  for  the  graduates  of  1701- 
1791  to  2.0  for  those  of  1867-1886." 

Achille  Loria  ("Contemporary  Social  Prob- 
lems", p.  75),  says: 

"It  is  proved  that  when  a  workman  is  In- 
sufficiently paid  he  procreates  madly— a  fact 

108 


which  has  been  demonstrated  with  the  aid  of 
convincing  statistics  by  Passy,  Villot,  Cheysson, 
Levasseur,  del  Vecchio,  Nitti,  and  others.  A* 
soon  as  an  increase  in  industrial  production 
leads  to  higher  wages,  and  the  condition  of  the 
laborer  rises  above  the  low  level  in  which  he 
was  barely  existing,  the  increase  in  popula- 
tion is  checked." 

And  BO  Professor  Richmond  Mayo-Smith 
("Statistics  and  Sociology,"  p.  380) : 

"Whenever  we  can  distinguish  classes  by 
social  condition  ...  we  almost  always  find 
a  lower  birth  rate  among  the  well-to-do  and 
intelligent  than  among  the  poor  and  ignorant." 

Plainly,  therefore,  any  measure  which  will 
successfully  elevate  the  masses  from  their 
present  low  and  narrow  state  of  living  to  a 
higher,  wider,  and  better  plane  of  life,  must 
necessarily  remove  all  danger  of  ultimate  over- 
population of  the  earth.  This  the  Single  Tax 
will  do. 


"With  the  inauguration  of  this  system  of 
[Single]  taxation,  .  .  .  over-production  and 
over-population,  those  bugbears  of  snperfl- 
cial  thinkers,  of  those  swift  logician*  who 
are  never  weary  of  worrying  their  fellows 
with  the  inane  products  of  their  own  muddled 
thinking,  would  cease  to  trouble  men's 
thoughts  and  distort  their  ethical  and  social 
views." — Lewis  H.  Berens,  "Toward  the 
Light,"  p.  208. 


95— It  Will  Purify  Politics— National,  State  and 
Local. 

"Political  corruption,  which  usually  starts 
from  the  headquarters  of  monoply  will  [under 
the  Single  Tax]  cease  from  lack  of  temp- 
tation."— F.  W.  Garrison  in  "The  Atlantic 
Monthly,"  December,  1913. 

"The  abolition  of  these  two  legal  systems 
of  plunder— that  of  the  landowners  from  the 
state  and  that  of  the  state  from  the  worker— 
would  strip  the  skulking  graft  of  the  police- 
man or  alderman  and  the  smugger  plunder 
of  the  tariff  baron  or  franchise-grabber,  of 
their  most  potent  ally." — Prof.  L.  J.  Johnson, 
in  "Harper's  Weekly,"  July,  1913. 


"The  adoption  of  natural  [Single] taxation 
would  reform  government,  by  lifting  the 
masses  out  of  the  degrading  conditions  which 
make  them  an  easy  prey  to  corrupt  influ- 
ences, by  removing  all  temptation  to  fraud 
tn  matters  of  taxation,  and  by  destroying  the 
chief  Inducements  to  the  corruption  of  legis- 
latures and  councils." — Thomas  O.  Shearman, 
"Natural  Taxation,"  p.  223. 

109 


9&_It  Will  Liberate  the  Press,  the  School  and 
the  Church  from  the  Thraldom  of  Special 
Privilege. 

Not  the  least  among  the  numerous  benefits 
of  the  Single  Tax  will  be  the  decisive  over- 
throw of  the  poisonous  influence  now  exercised 
by  "vested  interests"  in  the  management  of  our 
educational  and  religious  institutions — particu- 
larly as  regards  the  diffusion  of  economic 
knowledge  and  the  teaching  of  elemental 
truths. 

This  overthrow  will  be  brought  about  in 
two  ways :  In  the  first  place,  lands,  franchises, 
and  privileges  of  every  sort  will  be  taxed  in 
proportion  to  their  value.  Wealthy  church  and 
school  officials,  who  now  mold  or  control  the 
policies  of  most  of  our  institutions,  will,  there- 
fore, be  stripped  of  their  most  potent 
resources.  In  the  second  place,  opportunities 
for  employment  at  top  notch  wages  and  salar- 
ies will  be  opened  up  on  all  sides.  Teachers, 
editors,  and  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  therefore, 
will  be  perfectly  free  to  express  their  thoughts. 
They  will  no  longer  be  compelled  to  refrain 
from  boldly  speaking  the  truth  through  fear 
of  losing  their  jobs,  or  tempted  to  avoid  the 
discussion  of  measures  which  affects  the  very 
lives  and  happiness  of  multitudes  of  people, 
simply  because  of  the  danger  of  offending  the 
"hand  that  feeds  them." 

"[With  the  exclusive  taxation  of  land  val- 
ues] the  bondage  of  the  press  would  cease, 
the  university  be  freed  from  the  hand  of  spe- 
cial Interest,  the  pulpit  cut  away  from  dead- 
ening: dependence/' — Henry  George,  Jr.,  "The 
Menace  of  Privilege,"  p.  412. 

97— It  Will  Give  the  Fullest  and  Freest  Oppor- 
tunity for  Co-operation  in  Industry. 

"I  believe  that  the  Single  Tax  is  the  meth- 
od by  which  we  can  secure  the  proper  co- 
operation of  society,  because  I  think  the  free- 
dom of  the  land  is  the  first  step  toward  the 
removal  of  the  obstacles  that  prevent  the 
freer  association  of  the  people,  and  the  first 
step  necessary  to  free  man  from  the  burden 
of  poverty  that  turns  all  his  mental  ener- 
gies into  a  mere  struggle  for  existence." — 
Benjamin  F.  Lindas,  in  "The  Single  Tax  Re- 
view," May-June,  1917. 

"[With  the  exclusive  taxation  of  land  val- 
ues], and  the  increase  of  wages  to  employes 
am  well  as  to  employers,  would  come  a  gen- 
eral Increase  of  intelligence,  and  voluntary 
co-operative  associations  would  doubtless  as- 
same  proportions  undreamed  of  at  present.* 
— Henry  F.  Ring,  "The  Problem  of  the  Un- 
employed," p.  242. 

110 


98— It  Will  Lessen  the  Consuming  Greed  for 
Wealth. 

"The  equalization  In  the  distribution  of 
wealth  that  would  reiiult  from  the  dimple 
plan  of  taxation  that  I  propose,  must  lessen 
the  Intensity  with  which  wealth  In  pursued. 
It  Neems  to  me  that  In  a  condition  of  society 
in  which  no  one  need  fear  poverty,  no  one 
would  desire  great  wealth — at  least,  no  one 
would  take  the  trouble  to  strive  and  to  strain 
for  It  as  men  do  now.  For,  certainly,  the 
•pectacle  of  men  who  have  only  a  few  years 
to  live,  slaving  away  their  time  for  the  sake 
Of  dying  rich,  is  In  Itself  so  unnatural  and 
absurd,  that  In  a  state  of  society  where  the 
abolition  of  the  fear  of  want  had  dissipated 
the  envious  admiration  with  which  the  masses 
of  men  now  regard  the  possession  of  great 
riches,  whoever  would  toll  to  acquire  more 
than  he  cared  to  use  would  be  looked  upon 
as  we  would  now  look  on  a  man  who  would 
thatch  his  head  with  half  a  dozen  hats,  or 
walk  around  In  the  hot  sun  with  an  overcoat 
on.  When  every  one  Is  sure  of  being  able  to 
get  enough,  no  one  Trill  care  to  make  a  pack- 
horse  of  himself." — Henry  George,  "Progress 
and  Poverty,"  Book  IX,  Chap.  II. 

99— It  Will  KemoYe  Class  Distinctions,  Break 
Down  Bacial  Prejudices,  Banish  Fears  and 
Hatreds  of  Foreign  Peoples,  and  Scatter 
Wide  the  Seeds  of  Friendship  and  Goodwill. 

"The  gradual  Increase  [under  the  Single 
Tax]  In  the  reward  of  all  labor  and  the  di- 
minution of  large  fortunes  would  tend  to  re- 
move class  distinctions.  When  no  one  can 
live  sumptuously  without  labor)  when  no  one 
can  ape  the  manners  and  customs  of  those 
who  live  sumptuously  without  rendering  serv- 
ice, labor,  which  U  still  regarded  as  servile 
In  spite  of  the  abolition  of  chattel  slavery, 
will  be  no  longer  so  regarded.  Society  being 
thus  leveled  up  and  leveled  down,  the  vices 
which  arise  from  excessive  riches  and  extreme 
poverty  will  alike  disappear/' — Max  Hirsch, 
"Democracy  Versus  Socialism,"  p.  399. 

"Under  a  land  value  tax  system  the  greatly 
Increased  social  and  commercial  intercourse 
that  would  result  would  quickly  break  down 
present  prejudices  and  the  community  of  in- 
terest of  the  nations  would  soon  become  so 
apparent  that  the  danger  of  a  rupture  would 
be  minimized,  arbitration  would  take  the 
place  of  war  and  colossal  armaments  which 
now  grind  the  nations  Into  the  dust  could  be 
abolished."— Arthur  Withy,  in  "The  West- 
minster Review,"  June,  1895. 

100— It  Will  Blaze  the  Pathway  for  the  New  In- 
dustrial  Day. 

"The  Golden  Days  are  Just  ahead,  not  be- 
hind, and  the  struggle  will  be  carried  on  by 
those  with  whom  the  fight  is  a  religion,  to 
bring  the  day  when  all  will  dwell  on  equal 
terms,  one  with  the  other,  in  the  spirit  of 

111 


the  brotherhood  of  mankind.  And  the  way 
to  bring  that  day  is  by  the  adoption  of  the 
philosophy  of  Henry  George!" — Peter  Witt, 
In  the  Campaign  for  the  Mayoralty  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  1915. 

"The  Single  Tax  on  land  values  is  the  one 
means  by  which  humanity  may  rise  from  the 
mire  of  poverty,  regain  its  God-given  rights, 
and  again  walk  upright  and  unashamed  in 
the  image  of  the  Most  High." — Canon  Dorega, 
Secretary  to  the  Archbishop  of  Granada, 
Spain. 

"It  [the  Single  Tax]  would  bring  to  an  end 
the  present  awful  struggle  for  existence  and 
enable  men  to  live  together  as  brothers  and 
as  children  of  the  same  God  and  Father." — 

S.  S.  Craig,  in  "The  Arena,"  January,  1899. 

"We  have  got  the  real  remedy  for  some  of 
the  worst  ills  of  modern  life.  Our  remedy 
will  not  only  reach  to  the  more  obvious  mis- 
eries of  the  social  state,  but  it  will  go  to  the 
very  roots  of  war;  it  will  set  up  right  rela- 
tions at  the  base  of  society  which  •will  bring 
a  new  atmosphere  of  brotherliness  into  the 
world;  it  will  organize  the  Golden  Rule  into 
the  business  of  life  and  make  the  dream  of 
the  Savior  of  mankind  eome  true." — Robert 
D.  Towne,  in  "The  Aero,"  October,  1917. 

"It  [the  Single  Tax]  will  make  undeserved 
poverty  impossible.  It  will  do  away  with  the 
demoralizing  struggle  for  a  living.  It  will 
make  it  possible  for  men  to  be  honest,  Just, 
reasonable,  and  noble,  if  they  desire  to  be  so. 
It  will  prepare  the  soil  for  the  coming  of  the 
epoch  of  justice,  abundance,  peace  and  hap- 
piness, which  Christ  told  his  disciples  of." — 
Count  Leo  N.  Tolstoy,  in  an  Article  Addressed 
to  the  Russian  People. 

"If  the  English  laborers  could  only  retain 
for  their  own  use  and  benefit  the  vast  sums 
which,  under  the  existing  system  of  land 
tenure,  go  on  the  one  hand  to  the  owners  of 
the  soil,  and  the  sums  that  an  economical  sys- 
tem of  taxation  would  save  them  on  the  other, 
their  material  comforts  and  enjoyments 
would  be  multiplied  a  hundred  fold." — Bishop 
Thomas  Nulty  in  His  Letter  to  the  Clergy 
and  Laity  of  the  Diocese  of  Meath,  1881. 

"We  do  not  think  that  the  Single  Tax  will 
change  human  nature.  That  man  can  never 
do,  but  it  will  bring  about  conditions  in  which 
human  nature  can  develop  what  is  best,  in- 
stead of  as  now,  in  so  many  cases,  what  is 
worst.  It  will  permit  such  an  enormous 
production  as  we  can  hardly  conceive.  It 
•will  secure  an  equitable  distribution.  It  will 
solve  the  labor  problem  and  dispel  the  dark- 
ening clouds  which  are  now  gathering  over 
the  horizon  of  our  civilization.  It  will  make 
undeserved  poverty  an  unknown  thing.  It 
•will  check  the  soul-destroying  greed  of  gain. 
It  •will  enable  men  to  be  at  least  as  honest, 
as  true,  as  considerate,  and  as  high-minded 
as  they  would  like  to  be.  It  will  remove 
temptation  to  lying,  false  swearing,  bribery, 

112 


and  law  breaking.  It  will  open  to  all,  even 
the  poorest,  the  comfort*  and  refinements  and 
opportunities  of  an  advancing  civilisation.  It 
will  thus,  so  we  reverently  believe,  clear  the 
and  Justice,  and  consequently  of  abundance 
and  peace  and  happiness,  for  which  the  Mas- 
way  for  the  coming  of  that  Kingdom  of  right 
ter  told  His  disciples  to  work  and  pray."— 
Henry  George,  in  "The  Single  Tax — What  it 
Is  and  Why  We  Urge  It." 

PART  XII 
Progress  of  the  Single  Tax  Movement 

Notwithstanding  the  studied  silence  of  pulpit 
and  press,  and  the  bitter  prejudice  created  In 
the  minds  of  unthinking  people  by  monopolists 
and  beneficiaries  of  special  privilege,  the  Single 
Tax  movement  throughout  the  world,  is  rapidly 
gaining  ground.  No  spot  on  the  earth's  surface 
has  yet  been  blessed  with  a  full  application  of 
the  proposition,  but,  in  many  localities,  con- 
siderable progress  in  that  direction  has  already 
been  made. 

The  cities  of  Pittsburgh  and  Scranton,  Penn- 
sylvania, for  example,  took  steps  in  1913  to 
reduce  the  taxes  on  improvements  to  one-half; 
the  Irrigation  Districts  of  California  now  draw 
practically  all  their  revenue  from  the  privilege 
of  land  ownership;  while  Houston,  Texas,  be- 
fore being  stopped  by  the  Supreme  Court  on  the 
grounds  of  "unconstitutionally,"  conducted,  for 
a  few  years,  an  eminently  successful  experi- 
ment with  a  lighter  taxation  of  Industry  and  a 
heavier  taxation  of  land  values. 

Because  our  written  constitutions,  however, 
make  our  social  structure  more  rigid  than  is 
that  of  other  countries,  a  much  greater  advance, 
outside  of  the  United  States,  has  been  made  in 
the  Single  Tax  movement.  In  the  South 
American  States — in  Brazil,  in  Uruguay,  and 
particularly  in  Argentine  Republic,  notable 
strides  in  land  value  tax  legislation,  have  re- 
cently been  made.  Even  the  province  of  Yuca- 
tan, Mexico,  under  the  leadership  of  General 
Alvarado,  has  felt  the  impulse  and  acted  upon 
It.  Great  Britain  took  a  step  forward  when  It 
adopted  the  Lloyd-George  Budget  of  1909;  and 
In  Germany,  since  the  success  of  the  Kiao- 
Chau,  China,  experiment,  the  disposition  to 
place  a  heavier  burden  upon  the  "unearned  in- 
crement" has  been  steadily  growing  in  popu- 
larity. 

More  important  still  has  been  the  progress 
in  New  Zealand,  in  the  Australian  states,  and 
in  the  provinces  of  Western  Canada.  Here  the 
Single  Tax  principle,  during  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  has  been  put  to  the  acid  test,  with 
the  result  that  it  is  now,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  in  practical  operation  in  hundreds  of 
large  agricultural  districts  and  municipalities. 

113 


UNITED     STATES 
(Pittsburgh,   Pa.) 

"In  1913  the  graded  tax  law  went  into 
effect,  lowering  the  taxes  on  buildings  and 
increasing  the  burden  on  land.  This  year 
(1919)  the  rate  on  land  is  39  per  cent,  more 
than  it  is  on  buildings,  and  in  a  few  years 
there  will  be  a  difference  of  50  per  cent.  So 
well  satisfied  are  the  people  with  this  law 
that  the  general  opinion  is  it  •will  be  amended 
some  time  in  the  future  so  that  buildings  will 
not  be  taxed  at  all.  This  increasing  tax  bur- 
den on  land  values  has  made  it  less  profitable 
to  hold  land  oat  of  use.  Speculators  do  not 
find  our  city  such  an  attractive  field  for  their 
operations.  With  them  out  of  the  market,  a 
land  boom  did  not  materialize  and  prices  have 
not  been  advanced." — W.  W.  McNair,  Pitts- 
burgh Attorney,  in  "The  Star,"  San  Francisco, 
August,  1919. 

(Houston,  Texas) 

''After  two  years  of  application  of  the 
'Houston  Plan  of  (land  value)  Taxation'  we 
have  this  result: 

Rents  have  fallen  20  per  cent,  and  will  fall 
more  in  certain  cases  where  they  were  un- 
duly excessive. 

A  published  statement  that  we  would  not 
tax  money  increased  our  bank  deposits  $7,- 
000,000  in  two  years.  Our  building  permits 
Increased  the  first  six  months  66  per  cent.* 
and  for  the  first  year  51  per  cent." — J.  J. 
Pastoriza,  Late  Tax  Commissioner  of  Houston, 
Texas,  in  the  "Annals  of  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science,"  March,  1915, 
p.  196. 

"The  taxing  of  land  at  its  fair  value  has 
had  the  effect  of  causing  owners  of  land  to 
put  it  to  its  best  use,  instead  of  holding  it 
indefinitely  for  speculation.  The  partial  ex- 
emption from  taxation  of  improvements  upon 
land  has  caused  a  great  building  boom  and 
the  establishment  of  many  factories." — State- 
ment made  in  1913  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Cade,  Chief 
Clerk,  Building  Permit  Department,  Houston, 
Texas. 

(California  Irrigation  Districts) 

"The  Single  Tax  is  used  by  the  Irrigation 
Districts  of  California  for  the  maintenance 
and  operation  of  the  irrigation  system,  pay- 
ment of  interest  and  sinking  funds  of  the 
bonded  debt  and  other  purposes  .  .  .  Alto- 
gether the  irrigation  districts  .  .  .  com- 
prise a  total  of  1,000,000  acres.  New  districts 
are  being  proposed,  or  in  process  of  organiza- 
tion, that  will  add  500,000  acres  to  the  Single 
Tax  system.  These  lands  are  all  located  in 
fertile  valleys,  and  are  among  the  richest  sec- 
tions of  California." — E.  P.  E.  Troy,  Tax- 
ation Expert  of  San  Francisco  in  the  "Single 
Tax  Year  Book,  pp.  52,  56. 

"The  Single  Tax  is  the  best  system  of  tax- 
ation we  could  have  for  our  farms.  We  know 
that  it  is  making  our  district  grow.  All  of 
our  farmers  favor  it,  because  of  the  exemp- 
tion of  improvements.  No  one  In  the  district 
would  want  to  go  back  to  the  old  system."— 
Public  Statement  Signed  by  the  City  Trustees 
of  Oakdale,  California,  in  1914. 

114 


"The  new  •yntem  of  taxation  In  collect!** 
all  of  the  tax  from  the  value  of  the  land  has 
brought  great  prosperity  to  our  dlNtrlrt. 
Farmers  are  now  encouraged  to  Improve  their 
property.  Industry  and  thrift  are  not  pun- 
ished by  an  Increase  In  taxes." — Public  State- 
ment Made  by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Modesto,  California,  February,  1914. 

BRAZIL 

"The  Single  Tax  has  already  been  adopted 
In  Nlctheroy,  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Rio 
de  Janeiro  .  .  .  The  city  of  Rio  de  Ja- 
neiro, capital  of  Brazil,  under  Its  new  Mayor, 
Dr.  Sodre  Acevedo,  and  with  the  unanimous 
vote  of  the  City  Council,  has  undertaken  a 
revaluation  of  the  city  land  and  the  serlon* 
study  of  the  reform  of  Its  revenue  system  on 
the  lines  of  the  Single  Tax.  The  city  and 
State  of  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil,  are  agitating  si- 
multaneously the  reform  of  their  tax  system." 
— Robert  Balmer,  In  the  "Single  Tax  Tear 
Book,"  p.  186. 

PARAGUAY 

"In  Paraguay,  an  accumulative  tax  on  large 
estates  already  exists/' — Robert  Balmer,  in 
the  "Single  Tax  Year  Book,"  p.  187. 

URUGUAY 

"In  Uruguay,  as  Is  generally  known,  a  pure 
land  value  tax  now  forms  a  substantial  part 
of  the  national  revenue." — Robert  Balmer,  In 
the  "Single  Tax  Year  Book,"  p.  1887. 

ARGENTINE   REPUBLIC 

"Local  (Single  Tax)  leagues  are  springing 
up  all  over  the  country.  Already  strong  and 
Influential  ones  exist  in  the  cities  of  La  Plata 
and  Cordoba,  smaller  ones  In  Rosarlo,  Bahla 
Blanca,  Santa  Fe,  Realico,  San  Juan  and 
Junin  .  .  .  The  city  of  Jnjny,  capital  of 
the  Province  of  the  same  name,  has  this  year 
(1917)  voted  the  Single  Tax  regime.  The 
Province  of  Cordoba  draws  over  50  per  cent, 
of  its  revenue  from  a  pure  land  tax  in  the 
rural  districts,  and  now  proposes  to  make  ap- 
plication of  the  same  system  to  its  revenues 
derived  from  the  urban  districts." — Robert 
Balmer,  In  the  "Single  Tax  Year  Book,"  p.  187. 

GREAT    BRITAIN 

"The  now  famous  Lloyd-George  Budget  of 
1909,  which  finally  became  a  law  in  1910,  im- 
posed four  different  taxes  upon  land,  which 
marked  a  long  step  forward  In  the  taxation 
of  land  values." — "Thirty  Years  of  Henry 
George,"  by  C.  B.  Fillebrown,  p.  12. 

KIAO-CHAU,   CHINA 

"The  first  of  the  recent  German  experiments 
in  taxing  the  unearned  Increment,  and  the 
one  which  pointed  the  way  for  others,  was 
made  in  the  model  German  colony  of  Kiao- 
Chau,  which  was  established  in  1897  in  China. 
...  It  naturally  aroused  great  Interest 
In  Germany,  and  soon  led  to  attempts  to  tax 
the  unearned  Increment  in  various  German 
cities." — "Thirty  Years  of  Henry  George,"  by 
C.  B.  Flllebrown,  p.  10. 

115 


YUCATAN.    MEXICO 

"Formerly  the  owners  of  lands  in  the  State 
of  Yucatan  did  not  pay  any  taxes,  or  if  they 
paid  any,  it  was  an  irrisory  sum:  the  total 
collected  throughout  the  state  amounted  to 
$50,000— on  urban  and  rural  property.  The 
whole  properties  were  appraised  at  $32,000,- 
OOO.  After  carrying:  into  effect  a  rough  ap- 
pralsement,  the  valuation  amounted  to  $231,- 
000,000  and  at  present  the  State  of  Yucatan 
is  receiving;  about  $3,000,000  revenue.  This 
means  that  it  has  been  possible  to  raise  from 
the  shoulders  of  the  needy  a  largre  part  of  the 
burden  under  which  they  were  staggering:, 
which  almost  crushed  them  and  which  merely 
permitted  them  to  starve." — M.  C.  Holland,  C. 
E.,  Organizer,  Under  the  Administration  of 
General  Alvarado,  of  the  Agrarian  Commis- 
sion and  the  Property  Census  of  the  State  of 
Yucatan,  Mexico,  1915. 


NEW   ZEALAND 

"In  1896  local  bodies  were  empowered  to 
levy  their  rates  (taxes)  on  the  unimproved 
value  of  land,  if  they  so  desired.  By  1915  not 
less  than  132  districts  had  adopted  this 
method  of  taxing  land  values,  and  a  British 
Parliamentary  Report  of  1906  showed  that 
the  result  had  been  satisfactory  at  every 
point." — "Thirty  Years  of  Henry  George,"  by 
C.  B.  Fillebrown,  p.  7. 


(Wellington) 

"Population,  75,496.  Five  other  districts 
within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles,  population, 
18,240,  are  also  under  the  same  system  of  tax- 
ation. 

Assessed   value   of   land,   £1,500,000. 

Assessed  value  of  improvements  approxi- 
mately £10,OOO,OOO,  but  there  is  no  tax  on  im- 
provements. Very  high  prices  are  being 
realized  for  property  now,  and  have  been 
for  some  time  past. 

Tax  rate,   1.77%. 

Taxes  on  improvements  were  abolished 
1902. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  raising  sufficient 
revenue  by  a  tax  on  land-value  only.  It 
is  merely  a  question  of  lowering  or  raising 
the  tax  rate. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exempting  im- 
provements has  apparently  given  general 
satisfaction.  No  serious  efforts  whatever 
have  been  made  to  revert  to  taxing  improve- 
ments. 

Adjoining  properties,  one  a  vacant  lot,  one 
occupied  by  an  old  building  and  one  by  a 
modern  building  are  ench  valued  and  taxed 
exactly  the  same.  The  modern  building  will 
probably  so  improve  the  neighborhood  that 
the  value  of  its  own  lot  and  the  adjoining 
lots  will  be  much  enhanced,  and  at  a  subse- 
quent assessment  all  of  them  will  be  in- 
creased. 

It  certainly  must  be  admitted  that  land- 
value  taxation  and  exemption  of  improve- 
ments has  encouraged  increased  building:, 

116 


and    with    this    has    come,   of   course,   a    more 
modern  clans   of  building:. 

There  Is  every  Indication  that  the  system 
has  undoubtedly  come  to  stay." — Reply  of  the 
Town  Clerk  of  Wellington  to  an  Inquiry 
made  in  December,  1919,  by  the  Manufac- 
turers and  Merchants  Taxation  League. 
Newark,  N.  J.  See  its  Foreign  News  Bulle- 
tin, No.  19. 


(Chrlstchnrch) 

"Population.     55360. 

Assessed    value    of    land,    £5,885.374. 

Improvements  are  not  taxed,  but  their 
value  Is  £7,350,567. 

The  assessed  value  Is  supposed  to  be  the 
full  selling:  value. 

Tax    rate,   1.25%. 

Taxes  on  improvements  abolished  about 
1002. 

There  Is  no  more  difficulty  In  getting  suffi- 
cient revenues  by  land-value  taxation  than 
by  any  other  system. 

A  vote  was  taken  In  1015  on  a  proposal  to 
revert  to  taxing:  improvements,  but  the  pro- 
posal was  defeated. 

One  effect  of  the  system  is  that  taxes  have 
been  increased  on  vacant  land  and  on  land 
occupied  by  old  buildings. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exempting:  im- 
provements certainly  encouraged  the  build- 
ing: of  houses,  owing:  to  owners  of  consider- 
able areas  of  idle  land  sub-dividing  their 
land. 

Answering:  'In  your  opinion,  has  the  sys- 
tem come  to  stay?'  the  answer  is  'Apparently, 
it  has.'" — Reply  of  the  Town  Clerk  of 
Christchurch  to  an  inquiry  made  in  Decem- 
ber, 1919,  by  the  Manufacturers  and  Merch- 
ants Taxation  League,  Newark,  N.  J.  See 
its  Foreign  News  Bulletin,  No.  19. 

AUSTRALIA 

"Every  state  in  Australia  except  Queens- 
land now  has  in  some  form  a  state  tax  on 
land  values.  Queensland  raises  Its  local  reve- 
nues wholly  from  taxes  on  land  values;  while 
Western  Australia  and  Victoria  have  made 
a  beginning  in  this  direction." — "Thirty  Years 
of  Henry  George,"  by  C.  B.  Fillebrown,  p.  9. 

"It  (the  state  and  local  tax  on  land  values) 
has  reduced  the  rates  (taxes)  of  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  rate  payers,  although  we 
are  raising  a  larger  revenue.  It  has  stimu- 
lated the  building  trade,  employment  is  more 
constant,  and  business  generally  is  on  a  much 
sounder  footing.  It  has  induced  a  number  of 
rate  payers  to  build,  or  dispose  of  land  which 
they  were  not  able  or  willing  to  use  them- 
selves. ...  It  specially  benefits  those 
rate  payers  whose  use  of  land  is  most  effec- 
tive and  creditable  to  the  municipality,  while 
it  has  put  effective  pressure  upon  a  number 
of  owners  of  idle  or  partly  used  land  to 
change  their  tactics." — Statement  Signed  by 
90  Mayors  and  Aldermen  in  New  South  Wales. 
See  "Land  Values,"  London,  June,  1915,  p.  19. 

117 


"All  voters  in  Australia  may  vote  on  the 
proposal  to  adopt  It  (land-value  taxation), 
but  LAND  OWNERS  have  the  right  to  repeal 
it  after  two  years  operation. 

Notwithstanding  this,  land-value  taxation 
has  been  adopted  in  many  hundreds  of 
municipalities,  large  and  small,  and  as  its 
benefits  become  more  and  more  apparent  the 
number  adopting  it  is  constantly  and  rapidly 
increasing." — From  "Foreign  News  Bulletin, 
No.  19,"  issued  by  the  Manufacturers  and 
Merchants  Taxation  League,  Newark,  N.  J., 
January,  1920. 

(Brisbane) 

"Population,  40,577. 

Assessed   value    of   land,   £6,745,942. 

Improvements  are  not  taxed  and  no  record 
is  made  of  their  value. 

Tax   rate,   2.50    per    cent. 

Taxes    on   improvements   abolished   1891. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  sufficient 
revenue  from  a  tax  on  land-value  only. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exempting  im- 
provements has  given  general  satisfaction. 
There  has  been  no  movement  in  favor  of  re- 
verting to  taxing  improvements. 

Land-value  taxation  has  a  deterrent  effect 
upon  the  holding  of  land  solely  for  specula- 
tion purposes,  and  tends  to  encourage  build- 
ing. 

In  reply  to  'So  far  as  you  can  judge,  has 
the  system  come  to  stay?'  the  answer  is  •De- 
cidedly.'"— Reply  of  the  Town  Clerk  of  Bris- 
bane to  an  inquiry  made  in  December,  1919, 
by  the  Manufacturers  and  Merchants  Taxa- 
tion League,  Newark,  N.  J.  See  its  Foreign 
News  Bulletin,  No.  19. 

(Marrickville) 

"Population,  45,000. 

Assessed   value   of    land,  £1,747,024. 

Improvements  are  not  taxed,  but  their  value 
is  £3,639,701. 

Tax  rate,  2.0O% 

Taxes     on     improvements     abolished     1908. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  sufficient 
revenue  by  land-value  taxation. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exempting  im- 
provements has  given  general  satisfaction. 
No  agitation  has  developed  in  favor  of  re- 
verting to  taxing  improvements. 

This  method  of  taxing  seems  to  be  equi- 
table. No  matter  how  much  improvement  is 
done,  it  will  not  affect  the  taxes,  whether 
it  is  new,  old  or  very  extensive  buildings. 

Vacant  land  has  to  bear  its  equal  share  of 
taxation  with  adjoining  improved  land. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exempting  im- 
provements has  tended  to  encourage  more 
and  better  housing. 

Yes,  the  system  has  come  to  stay;  it  being 
recognized  by  all  that  it  is  the  most  equitable 
system  of  taxation." — Reply  of  the  Town 
Clerk  of  Marrickville  to  an  inquiry  made  in 
December,  1919,  by  the  Manufacturers  and 
Merchants  Taxation  League,  Newark,  N.  J. 
See  its  Foreign  News  Bulletin,  No.  19. 

118 


(Ashfield) 

"Population.    3Y,OOO. 

Assessed    value   of    land,    £1,504,052. 

ImprovementN  are  not  taxed,  but  their  value 
In  £5,:i7:i,7»:i. 

A  new  nssrsMiiM-nf  now  In  progress  will 
Mhow  a  large  increase  In  both. 

The  nsNi-sNi-d  value  of  land  is  the  market 
value. 

Tax   rate,  1.87%. 

Taxeit     on     ImprovementH     abolished     19O8. 

There  la  no  difficulty  In  getting  sufficient 
revenue  from  a  tax  on  land-value  only. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exemption  of  im- 
provements IIIIM  apparently  given  general 
satisfaction.  I  can  not  remember  any  agita- 
tion In  favor  of  reverting  to  taxing  Improve- 
mentN  in  any  municipality  In  New  South 
Wale*.  (Every  municipality  in  New  South 
Wales,  of  which  there  are  more  than  30O, 
exempt  improvements  from  taxation,  mostly 
dating  from  19O8.) 

A  vacant  block  of  land  pays  the  same  taxes 
as  Is  paid  on  a  block  of  land  of  equal  value 
which  is  improved,  irrespective  of  the  value 
of  the  improvements. 

Undoubtedly  land-value  taxation  and  ex- 
empting improvements  has  tended  to  en- 
courage erection  of  more  houses. 

So  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  system  has  come 
to  stay." — Reply  of  the  Town  Clerk  of  Ash- 
field  to  an  inquiry  made  in  December,  1919, 
by  the  Manufacturers  and  Merchants  Taxa- 
tion League,  Newark,  N.  J.  See  its  Foreign 
News  Bulletin,  No.  19. 


(Warringah    Shire) 

(A    Rural    District) 

'•  Population.   12.0OO. 

Assessed  value   of   land,   £1,070,001. 

Improvements  are  not  taxed,  and  there  is 
no  record  of  their  value. 

Tax   rate,  .83%. 

Taxes     on     improvements     abolished     1008. 

The  above  tax  rate  was  fixed  at  that  time 
and  not  since  changed.  This  low  rate  does 
not  give  quite  sufficient  revenue. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exempting  im- 
provements appears  to  give  general  satls- 
f notion.  There  has  been  no  protest  against  it. 
It  tends  to  encourage  owners  of  vacant  land 
to  make  use  of  their  land,  and  discourages 
speculation. 

For  these  reasons  it  tends  to  encourage 
more  and  better  housing.  There  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  the  system  has  come  to  stay." 
— Reply  of  the  Shire  Clerk  to  an  inquiry  made 
in  December,  1919,  by  the  Manufacturers  and 
Merchants  Taxation  League,  Newark,  N.  J. 
See  its  Foreign  News  Bulletin,  No.  19. 

(Sydney) 

"Population  of  city,  10O,OOO  (of  metropoli- 
tan area,  764.0OO). 

Assessed   value  of  land,  city,  £31331,008. 

Improvements  are  not  taxed  and  there  is  no 
record  of  their  value. 

119 


Tax  rate,  1.77%.  (This  does  not  include 
the  water  and  sewer  rates.) 

Taxes    on   improvements    abolished   1916. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  sufficient 
revenue  from  a  tax  on  land-value  only. 

Land-value  taxation  and  exemption  of  im- 
provements has  given  general  satisfaction. 
Some  agitation  developed  in  favor  of  revert- 
ing to  taxing  improvements  but  subsided, 
owing  to  lack  of  strong  support.  The  sys- 
tem should  tend  to  encourage  more  and  better 
housing  and  lower  rents,  as  the  incidence  of 
the  tax  has  the  effect  of  lowering  the  taxes 
on  household  lands. 

In  reply  to  the  inquiry,  <So  far  as  you  can 
judge,  has  the  system  come  to  stay?'  the 
answer  is  'Yes.'  " — Reply  of  the  Town  Clerk 
of  Sydney  to  an  inquiry  made  in  December, 
1919,  by  the  Manufacturers  and  Merchants 
Taxation  League,  Newark,  N.  J.  See  its 
Foreign  News  Bulletin,  No.  19. 

"There  are  three  solid  reasons  why  the  land 
value  system  has  come  to  stay  in  the  city  of 
Sidney: 

1.  It  is  admittedly  Juat. 

2.  It    has    reduced    the    rates    [taxes]    of    a 
large      majority      of      the      rate-payers 
throughout  the   whole  area. 

3.  It  is  a  great  financial  success." 

— A.  G.  Huie  of  Sidney,  Australia,  in  "Land 
and  Liberty,"  11  Tothill  Street,  London,  Eng- 
land, September,  1919. 

WESTERN    CANADA 

"Of  the  nine  Canadian  provinces,  t^ree  have 
taken  important  steps  toward  the  Single 

Tax." — "Thirty  Years  of  Henry  George,"  by 
C.  B.  Fillebrown,  p.  2. 

"There  is  no  tax  on  implements,  vehicles, 
live  stock  or  other  personal  property,  or  on 
buildings,  on  farms  in  Manitoba,  Alberta  or 
Saskatchewan,  and  it  is  authoritatively 
stated  that  'no  government  in  those  Provinces 
would  dare  levy  such  a  tax.' 

In  addition  to  the  regular  local  tax  on  all 
land-value,  the  Province  (State)  of  Alberta, 
Canada,  since  1915  has  collected  a  sur-tax  of 
one  per  cent  on  the  value  of  idle  land  outside 
of  occupied  farms.  It  brings  about  $600,000 
a  year  to  the  Provincial  Treasury. 

The  Deputy  Minister  of  Municipal  Affairs 
of  Alberta  reports:  'We  find  that  the  tax 
•encourages  production  and  is  bound  to  have 
.a  splendid  effect  in  reducing  the  quantity  of 
land  held  by  speculators.* 

The  Province  of  Saskatchewan  also  has  had 
A  one  per  cent  sur-tax  on  the  value  of  idle 
land  since  1917.  It  produced  $575,450  for  the 
fiscal  year  1918-19. 

The  Province  of  Manitoba  began  collecting 
a  five  mills  sur-tax  on  the  value  of  idle 
land  in  1918,  which  produces  about  $150,000 
per  annum. 

The  Province  of  British  Columbia  enacted 
a  5  per  cent  tax  on  idle  land  in  1919.  The 
result  is  that  idle  land  of  the  'finest  soil  in 

120 


the  world/  on  line*  of  new  railway*  which 
was  previously  held  by  speculators  at  925  per 
acre,  !•  now  being  offered  by  them  at  $5  per 
acre,  and  settlement  on  the  land  IM  rapidly 
taking  place,  largely  by  Immigration  of 
American  fanner*." — From  Foreign  News 
Bulletin  No.  19,  issued  in  January,  1920,  by 
the  Manufacturers  and  Merchants  Taxation 
League,  Newark,  N.  J. 

"Taxes  fall  very  lightly  on  the  farmer  in 
Western  Canada.  A  Mmall  tax — Single  Tax- 
is levied  on  the  land,  while  buildings,  im- 
provements, animals,  farm  machinery  and  all 
personal  property  are  exempt  from  taxation. 
Here  are  official  figures  showing  the  average 
taxes  on  farm  laiuN  in  Manitoba,  Saskatche- 
wan and  Alberta,  as  compared  with  the  rep- 
resentative farming  districts  of  Nebraska, 
Iowa,  South  Dakota  and  Wisconsin  i 

••In  the  three  Western  Canada  provinces 
Just  named,  the  average  assessed  value  of 
farm  land  per  acre  is  $11.59.  Average  taxes 
per  acre,  20  cents.  In  the  four  representative 
farming  states  of  Nebraska,  Iowa,  South 
Dakota  and  \Visconsin  the  average  assessed 
value  per  acre  is  $G0.71,  while  the  average 
taxes  per  acre  is  65Vfe  cents — more  than 
double." — Earle  W.  Gage  in  "The  Farmers' 
Open  Forum,"  August,  1919. 

"The  most  striking  feature  in  a  study  of 
tax  reform  in  western  Canada,  is  the  strong 
trend  throughout  the  entire  country  in  the 
direction  of  the  Single  Tax  principle.  That 
so  far  it  is  working  satisfactorily  wherever 
tried  is  generally  admitted,  even  by  oppo- 
nents of  the  principle.  In  no  district  in 
which  the  principle  has  been  applied  is  there 
any  noticeable  desire  to  return  to  the  old 
system.  From  present  indications  it  is  safe 
to  predict  that  within  the  next  ten  or  twenty 
years  the  Single  Tax  principle  will  be  adopted 
in  every  taxing  district  in  western  Canada." 
— Third  Biennial  Report  of  the  Minnesota  Tax 
Commission,  1913.  Chap.  XII,  p.  174. 

(Vancouver,  B.  C.) 

"So  far  as  I  can  find  out,  the  electors  of 
the  city  of  Vancouver  are,  by  a  tremendous 
majority,  in  favor  of  our  present  system  of 
exemption." — T.  S.  Baxter,  Mayor  of  Van- 
couver, B.  C.,  in  a  Letter  to  Mr.  F.  J.  Dixon, 
M.  P.  P.,  Winnipeg,  Manitoba,  May  10,  1914. 


(Victoria,  B.  C.) 

"When  this  system  (the  land  value  tax 
system)  was  first  Introduced,  it  had  many 
bitter  opponents,  but  those  who  were  its 
strongest  opponents  at  one  time,  are  now, 
many  of  them,  staunch  advocates  of  it.  I 
should  say  that,  generally  speaking,  it  meets 
with  approval,  and  In  my  own  personal  opin- 
ion, is  of  benefit  to  the  community." — A. 
Stewart,  Mayor  of  Victoria,  B.  C.,  in  a  Letter 
to  Mr.  F.  J.  Dixon,  M.  P.  P.,  Winnipeg,  Mani- 
toba, May  11,  1914. 

121 


"In  1910  Victoria  via*  an  antiquated  town, 
without  a  modern  office  building  in  the  whole 
city,  with  improvements  valued  at  $11,002,130. 
Today,  after  nine  years  of  tax  exemption  of 
improvements,  it  is  well  equipped  with  well 
constructed  fireproof  buildings,  and  improve- 
ments are  valued  at  $25,459,740.  The  owners 
of  these  buildings  are  witness  to  the  fact 
that  exempting  improvements  from  taxation 
encourages  them  to  improve  their  properties 
and  facilitated  the  financing  of  the  projects." 
— From  Foreign  News  Bulletin,  No.  19,  is- 
sued in  January,  1920,  by  the  Manufacturers 
and  Merchants  Taxation  League,  Newark, 
N.  J. 

(Edmonton,  Alberta) 

"As  far  as  I  am  aware  the  Single  Tax 
schedule  which  we  have  adopted  is  as  popu- 
lar as  it  is  possible  for  any  system  of  tax- 
ation to  be.  We  have  abolished  the  poll  tax, 
income  tax,  floor  space  tax,  and  at  present 
derive  revenue  for  current  expenses  of  the 
municipality  from  a  direct  tax  on  land  values 
alone.  ...  In  my  own  personal  opinion 
the  system  of  land  value  taxation  is  of  dis- 
tinct benefit  to  the  community." — W.  J.  Mc- 
Namara,  Mayor  of  Edmonton,  Alberta,  Can- 
ada, in  a  Letter  to  Mr.  F.  J.  Dixon,  M.  P.  P., 
Winnipeg,  Manitoba,  May  9,  1914. 


INDEX 

(Figures  refer  to  pages) 

Abbott,  Dr.  Lyman.  quoted,  4,  11,  33,  102. 
"Ability  to  Pay"   theory,   unsoundness  of,   17. 
Adams,  Charles  Francis,  quoted,  17. 
Adams,  Comfort  A.,  quoted,  55. 
Adams,  Samuel  Hopkins,  quoted,  61. 
Agramonte,  Dr.  Aristides,  quoted,   54. 
Agricultural    land,    monopoly    of,    20,    21,    72,    73, 

74,   75. 

Allen,  Governor  Henry  J.,  quoted,  80. 
Andrews,  Prof.  E.  B.,  quoted,  105. 
Argentine  Republic,  Single  Tax  progress  in,  115. 
Armies  and  navies,  how  to  disband,  97,  98. 
Arnold,  Schuyler,  quoted,  9. 
Asquith,  H.  H.,  quoted,   102. 
Australia,   Single  Tax  progress   in.   113,   117,   118, 

119,  120. 

"Back  to  the  Land"  movement,  69. 

Bagot,  John,  quoted,  19,  51. 

Bailey,  Warren  W.,  quoted,  8,  44,  102. 

Baker,  Newton  D.,  quoted,  101. 

Baldwin,  Prof.  P.  Spencer,  quoted,   106. 

Balfour,  A.  J.,  quoted,  10. 

Balmer,  Robert,  quoted,  115. 

Barnes,  Prof.  Earl,  quoted,  105. 

Barry,  J.  H.,  quoted,  103. 

Bascom,  quoted,  5. 

Batten,  Ernest,  quoted,  103. 

Beard,  Daniel  C.,  quoted,  103. 

Beard,  Prof.  Chas.  A.,  quoted,  105. 

Bedichek,  R.,  quoted,  13. 

Benton,  C.  E.  quoted,  43. 

Berens,  Lewis  H.,  quoted,  5,   18,  38,   47,  98,  109. 

Bland,  Rev.  S.  G.,  quoted,  17,  18. 

Boston,  Single  Tax  illustrated  in,  71. 

Brandeis,  Judge  Louis  D.,  quoted,  103. 

Brazil,  Single  Tax  in,  115. 

Briggs,  George  A.,  quoted,  53. 

Brinsmade,  Prof.  R.  B.,  quoted.  105. 

Brown,  James  R.,  quoted,  58,   78,   99. 

Brubaker,  Dr.  A.  P.,  quoted,  54. 

Byrne,  Gov.  F.  M.,  quoted,  80. 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas,   quoted,   57. 

Bucklin,  James  W.,  quoted,  103. 

Buell,  C.  J.,  quoted,  65. 

Building,   Single  Tax  will  lower  cost  of,   67,    68. 

Burch,  Prof.,  quoted,  85. 

Burgess,  Edwin,  quoted,  54,  62,  93. 

Buscher,  Gustav,  quoted,  67. 

Cade,  A.  G.,  quoted,   114. 

Cairnes,  J.  E.,  quoted,  35,36. 

California  Irrigation  Districts,  Single  Tax  in,  114. 

Canada,  Single  Tax  Progress  in,  113,  120,  121, 
122. 

Capper,  Gov.  Arthur,  80. 

"Capital"   and   "Capitalization",   31. 

Capital,  definition  of,  34. 

Carlson,  G.  L.,  quoted,  85. 

Carneiro,  Dr.  Octavio  De  Sousa,  quoted,  101. 

Charity,  Public,  cost  of,  63. 

Chicago,  land  values  in,  70. 

Child  labor  problem,  51. 

City  land  values,  34,  35. 

Clark,   Prof.   J.   B.,   quoted,    105. 

Clifford,  H.  E.,  quoted,  55. 

Coal  land,  monopoly  of,  21;  value  of,  34,  35. 

Cobden,  Richard,  quoted,  102. 

Cohen,  Dr.  S.   S.,  quoted,   54,  55,  56. 

Colbron,  Grace  I.,  quoted,  103. 

Colver,  William  B.,  quoted,  36. 

Committee  of  Manufacturers  and  Merchants  on 
Federal  Taxation,  quoted,  49. 

Commission  on  Industrial  Relation,  Final  Re- 
port, 25,  51,  77. 

Common  property  in  land,  Single  Tax  does  not 
mean,  8,  9,  10. 

Commons,  Prof.  John  R.,  quoted,  25,  33,  54,  105. 

Competition,  Single  Tax  will  free,  31. 

Conservation  of  soil,  104;  of  forests,  106,  107. 

Cooke,  Edmund  Vance,  quoted,  104. 

Cooley,  Stoughton,  quoted,   90. 

Cost  of  living,  Single  Tax  will  lower,  36,  37. 

Councilman,  Dr.  W.  T.,  quoted,  54. 

County  Government,  cost  of,   88. 

Craig,  S.  S.,  quoted,  11,  59,  93,  112. 

123 


Cramer,  Henry,  quoted,  77. 

Creel,  George,  quoted,  51. 

Cridge,  A.  D.,  quoted,  85,  86. 

Crime,  primary  cause  of,  and  remedy  for,  52. 

Crosser,  Robert,  quoted,  103. 

Darlington,  Dr.  Thomas,  quoted,  58. 

Darrow,  Clarence,  quoted,  6,  55. 

Davenport,  Prof.  H.  J.,  quoted,  5,  105. 

Death  Rate,  Single  Tax  will  lower,  58. 

Department  of  Labor,  quoted,  25. 

Desertion  of  wives  and  infants,  cause  of,  54. 

De  Tocqueville,  Alexander,  quoted,  75. 

Dewey,   Prof.  John,  quoted,   105. 

Dillard,  Prof.  J.  H.,  quoted,  105. 

Disease,  primary  cause  of,  56. 

Divorce,  rate  and  primary  causes  of,  56,  57. 

Dorega,  Archbishop  Canon,  quoted,  112. 

Doubleday,  E.  S.,  quoted,  58. 

Downer,  Charles  A.,  quoted,  55. 

Drink  evil,  53. 

Dupont,  A.  B.,  quoted,  53. 

Excess  profits  tax,  increases  prices,  36. 
Eggleston,  W.  G.,  quoted,  85,  86,  103. 

Fairchild,  Prof.  E.  T.,  quoted,  91. 

Farmers,  effect  of  Single  Tax  on,  72-93. 

Farmers  endorse  Single  Tax  in  British 
Columbia,  89;  in  Manitoba,  89;  in  Washing- 
ton, 92;  in  Potter  County,  Texas,  92;  in  Mary- 
land, 92. 

Farm  land  values,  34,  35,  76. 

Farm  tenancy,  75,  76. 

Fear,  international,  cause  of,  93,  94,  95,  96,  97. 

Federal  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,   45. 

Fels,  Joseph,  quoted,  60,  87. 

Fels,  Mrs.  Joseph,  quoted,   100,   103. 

Female  labor,  51. 

Ferguson,  John,  quoted,  99. 

Ferris,   Ex-Gov.  W.  N.,   quoted,   80. 

Fillebrown,  C.  B.f  quoted,  6,  8,  10,  19,  27,  84,  85, 
115,  116,  117. 

Fire  departments,  Single  Tax  will  lower  cost 
of,  61. 

Fisher,  Prof.  Irving,  quoted,  55,  58,  108. 

Forest  land,  monopoly  of,  23,  24;  value  of,  34, 
35;  conservation  of,  106,  107. 

Ford,  Henry,  quoted,  104. 

Franchises  are  land  values,  27;  value  of,  34,  35. 

Frey,  Eugene,  quoted,  81. 

Gage,  Earl  W.,  quoted,   118. 

Garrison,  F.  W.,  quoted,   53,  94,  98,  109. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  quoted,   4,  9. 

Garvin,  L.  F.  C.,  quoted,  25,  48,  52. 

George,  Henry,  quoted,  3,   9,   19,   47,   48,   100,   111, 

112,  113. 

George,  Henry,  Jr.,  quoted,  26,   30,   43,   110. 
George,  Lloyd,  quoted,   59. 
Gibson,  David,  quoted,  56,  78. 
Goddard,  Prof.  H.  C.,  quoted,  105. 
Gompers,   Samuel,   quoted,   39. 
Gorgas,  William  C.,  quoted,  41,  55,  56. 
Government,  Single  Tax  will  reduce  cost  of,  102. 
Great  Britain,  land  value  tax  progress  in,  115. 
Grenell,  Judson,  quoted,  48. 
Grey,  Sir  George,  quoted,  102. 
Ground  rent  in  the  U.  S.,  35. 

Hackett,  James  K.,  quoted,   104. 

Hall,  Bolton,  quoted,  19,  28,  30,  61. 

Hampton,  George  P.,  quoted,  83. 

Hapgood,  Norman,  quoted,  103. 

Hatred,  international,  cause  of,  93,  94,  95,  96,  97. 

Hirsch,  Max,   quoted,  7,  33,  51,   69,  93,   100,  111. 

Holt,  Byron  W.,  quoted,  16,  56,  60,  63. 

Homestead  Loan  and  Land  League  of  Missouri, 

Housing  problems,  Single  Tax  will  solve,  58. 
Houston,  land  value  tax  experiment   in,  114. 
Howe,   Frederic  C.,  quoted,    9,   37,   41,   47,   53,   55, 

56,  60,  69. 

Hunter,  Robert,  on  population,  108. 
Hussey,  Dr.  Mary  D.,  quoted,  96. 

Interest,   definition  of,  34. 
Illiteracy,   62. 

124 


Immigration   problems,   Single  Tax  solution   for, 

47;  opposition  to,  93,  94. 
Imports,  opposition  to,  94. 
Ingersoll,  Charles  H.,  quoted,  53. 
Intemperance,   53. 

Johnson,  Prof.  L.  J.,  quoted,  8,  15,  18,  56,   59,  69, 

88,  93,  105,  109. 

Johnson,  Tom  L.,  quoted,  19,  30,  41,  43,  82. 
Jordan,  Dr.  David  Starr,  quoted,  105. 
Journal  of  American  Medicine,  58. 

Kegley,  C.  B.,  quoted,   84,  93. 
Kellogg,  Julia  A.,  quoted,  57. 
Kiao-Chau,  China,  Single  Tax  in,  115. 
Klefer,  Daniel,  quoted,  30,  50,  53. 
Killam,  Charles  W.,  quoted,  65. 
King,  Judson,  quoted,   103. 
Knopf,  Dr.  S.  A.,  quoted,  55. 
Kohler,  J.  P.,  quoted,  59. 

Labor,  definition  of,  34. 

Land  and  wealth,  difference  between,  29. 

Land,  definition  of,  34. 

Land  Nationalization,  Single  Tax  does  not  mean, 
8-10. 

Land  speculation,  evils  of,  64,  72,  90;  examples 
74,  75;  effect  of  Single  Tax  on,  86;  in  Cali- 
fornia, 87. 

Land  values  belong  to  society,  4,  5;  tax  on  land 
values  can  not  be  shifted,  5,  6;  in  New  York 
City,  70;  in  Chicago,  70;  differ  from  industrial 
values,  29,  30;  form  basis  of  over  grown 
fortunes,  31,  32,  33;  rise  of,  34,  35;  distribu- 
tion of,  35;  comparison  of  city  and  farm,  83. 

Lane,  Franklin  K.,  quoted,  103. 

Leubuscher,  F.  C.,  quoted,   8,   50,  51,  72. 

Lewis,  Fay,  67. 

Lindas,  Benjamin  F.,  quoted,  10,  31,  110. 

Lindhagen,  Carl,  quoted,  101. 

Lindsey,  Judge  B.  B.,  quoted,  51,  103. 

Loeb,  Dr.  Jacques,  quoted,  54. 

Loria,  Achille,  quoted,  108,   109. 

London,  Jack,  quoted,  53. 

Lybarger,  Lee  Francis,  quoted,  37. 

Maguire,  Judge  James   G.,   quoted,   103. 

Markets,   Single  Tax  will  enlarge,   39,   40,   96. 

Markham,  Edwin,  quoted,   51,   103. 

Marks,  Lionel  S.,  quoted,  55. 

Marriage  rate,  56,  57. 

Marsh,  Benjamin  C.,  quoted,  63,  72. 

Marx,  Karl,  quoted,  30. 

Mason,  Alfred  Bishop,  quoted,  53,  54. 

Mayo-Smith,  Prof.  R.,  quoted,  109. 

McGlynn,  Rev.  Edward,  quoted,  4,  50,  103. 

McHugh,  Edward,  quoted,  60. 

McNair,  W.  W.,  quoted,  114. 

Mendelson,  Dr.  W.,  quoted,  65. 

Middleton,  J.  B.,  quoted,    18,   31. 

Militarism,  cause  of  and  cure  for,  97,  98. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  quoted,  5,  35. 

Miller,  J.  D.,  quoted,  51,  98. 

Miller,  Prof.  Marion  Miles,  quoted,  105. 

Mineral  land,  monopoly  of,   22;  value  of,   34,  35; 

conservation  of,  107,  108. 
Modesto,  California,  Single  Tax  in,  115. 
Money  system,  effect  of  Single  Tax  on,  44,  45. 
Monopoly  of  land,  agricultural,  20,  21,  72,  73,  74, 

75;   coal,   oil,  and  mineral,   21,   22,   23;   timber. 

23,    24;    waterpower,    25,    26;    urban,    26,    27; 

other  land,  27,  28. 
Moody,  John,  quoted,  104. 
Morehead,  Gov.  J.  H.,  quoted,   80. 
Mortgages,  farm,  75. 
Morton,  James  F.,  Jr.,  quoted,  31. 
Municipal  improvement,  Single  Tax  will  aid,  60. 
Murphy,  J.  J.,  quoted,  55,  59. 

Nearing,  Prof.  Scott,  quoted,  6,  15,  85,  105. 

Neil,  Judge  Henry,  quoted,  54. 

Neilsen,  Francis,  quoted,  37,  48. 

New  York  City,  comparison  of  ground  rent  and 

taxes  in,  7;  land  values  in.  70. 
New   Zealand,   Single   Tax  progress   in,    113,   116, 

117. 

Nock,  Albert  J.,  quoted,  30,  43. 
Norwalk,  M.  W.,  quoted,  62. 
Nulty,  Bishop  Thomas,  quoted,  11. 

125 


Oakdale,  Calif.,  Single  Tax  in,  114. 
Oil  land,  monopoly  of,  21,  22. 
Osborne,  Thomas  Mott,  quoted,  55,  103. 
Outhwaite,  R.  L.,  quoted,  42. 
Overwork,  55. 
Overpopulation,  108,  109. 

Panics,  Single  Tax  solution  for,  45,  46. 

Pastoriza,  J.  J.,  quoted,  16,  61,  114. 

Paraguay,  Single  Tax  progress  in,  115. 

Parker,  George  H.,  quoted,  55. 

Paul,  John  quoted,   58. 

Peabody,  George  Foster,  quoted,  55,  104. 

Pena,  Dr.  Roque  Saenz,  quoted,  101. 

Peterson,  Dr.  Frederic,  quoted,  54. 

Pettigrew,  R.  F.,  quoted,  103. 

Pinchot,  Amos  R.  E.,  quoted,  103. 

Pipe  lines,  27. 

Pittsburgh,  land  value  taxation  in,   114. 

Polak,  Edward,  quoted,  65,  66,  67. 

Police   departments,    Single  Tax   will   lower  cost 

of,  62. 

Porter,  Charles  H.,  quoted,  71. 
Post,  Louis  F.,  quoted,  23,  33,  40,  42,  55. 
Poverty,  involuntary,  Single  Tax  will  abolish,  49. 
Productive  power,  effect  on  land  values,  34,  35. 
Progress  of  Single  Tax  in  the  United  States,  113, 
,       114,  115. 
Public  Health,  62. 

Public  improvements,  cost  of,  63,  64. 
Public,  The,  quoted,  10. 
Purdy,  Lawson,  quoted,  61. 

Quick,  Herbert,  quoted,  84,  104. 
Quinby,  L.  J.,  quoted,  104. 

Ralston,  Jackson  H.,  quoted,  30,  53. 

Rauschenbusch,  Prof.  Walter,  quoted,   9,   68,   105. 

Record,  George  L.,  quoted,  83. 

Reedy,  William  Marion,  48,  49,  104. 

Reid,  Sir  George,  quoted,  102. 

Rent,  a  social  product,  4,  5;  tax  on  rent  can  not 
be  shifted,  5,  6;  in  New  York  City,  7,  32; 
definition  of,  34;  an  "unearned"  income,  4,  5, 
19,  32;  will  be  reduced  under  Single  Tax,  37, 
3*;  rises  with  progress  of  society,  34,  35,  36. 

R'sKtrdo,  quoted,  6,  45. 

^ciggen,  S.  3.,  quoted,  78. 

Rights-of-way,  railroad,  are  land  values,  27; 
value  of,  34,  35. 

Ring,  Henry  F.,  9,  43,  59,  68,  110. 

Robert,  Lord  Cecil,  quoted,  10. 

Robinson,  Lona  I.,  quoted,   8,  54. 

Rogers,  Dr.  John,  quoted,  54. 

Rogers,  Prof.  Thorold,  quoted,  5,  36. 

Rolland,  M.  C.,  quoted,  116. 

Roosevelt,  Col.  Theodore,  quoted,  27. 

Root,  Charles  T.,  quoted,  53,   58,  100. 

Rural  school  situation,  90,  91. 

Safford,  Arthur  T.,  quoted,  55. 

Sanitation,  W.  C.  Gorgas  on,  55. 

Scanlon,  T.,  quoted,  40,  41. 

Scranton,  land  value  tax  in,  113. 

Schrameier,  Dr.  Ludwig  Wilhelm,  quoted,   101. 

Scott,  Andrew,  quoted,  50. 

Seager,  Prof.  H.  R.,  quoted,  105. 

Secor,  Alson,  quoted,  85. 

Seligman,  Prof.  E.  R.  A.,  quoted,  6. 

Sen,  Dr.  Sun  Yat,  quoted,  101. 

Senate  Vice  Commission,  52. 

Shearman,   Thomas   G.,    quoted,   6,    10,    33,    45.    48. 

109. 
Shifting  of  tax,   not  possible  under  Single  Tax, 

5,  6. 

Sickness,  main  cause  of,  56. 
Single  Tax — See  "Table  of  Contents". 
Slaughter,  Dr.  J.  W.,  quoted,   105. 
Slums,  Single  Tax  will  disintegrate,  68,  69. 
Smith,  Dr.  Adam,  quoted,   6,   35,   108. 
Smith,  Dr.  H.  B.,  quoted,  90. 
Speculation  in  land,  72,  73,  74. 
Standard  Oil  Company,  profits  of,  32,   33 
Steel  Corporation,  30,  31. 
Steffens,  Lincoln,  quoted,  53,  104. 
Stallard,  Dr.  J.  H.,  quoted,  18. 
Starcke,  Dr.  S.  N.,  quoted,  101. 
Starr,  Western,   quoted,   81. 
Stockyards,  monopoly  of,  27,  28. 

126 


Sulzer,  Wintam,  quoted,  80. 

Swanton,  W.  I.,  quoted,  72. 

Sydney,   Australia,   Single  Tax  progress   in,   117. 

Tariff,  36,  37,  47. 

Taxation,   incidence  of,   5,   6;  in  New  York  City, 

defects   of  present  system,   13,    14,    15,   16,   17, 

18,  19;  responsible  in  large  measure  for  high 

prices,  36,  37. 
Tax    departments.    Single    Tax    will    lower    cost 

of,  60. 

Tenancy,  city,  66. 
Tenancy,  farm,  75. 
Tenement  housing  problem,  58. 
Territory,   desire   for  more  territory,   95,    98. 
Timber  land,  monopoly  of,  23. 
Tolstoy,  Count  Ilya,  quoted,  102. 
Tolstoy,  Count  Leo  N.,  quoted,  6,  44,  112. 
Towne,  Robert  D.,  quoted,   44,  53,  112. 
Trade,  how  Single  Tax  will  increase,  39,  40. 
Transportation,     Single     Tax    will    reduce    cost 

of,  65. 

Trowbridge,  Oliver  R.,  quoted,  30,  38,  54. 
Troy,  Edward  P.  E.,  quoted,  61,   86,  114. 
Trusts,  Single  Tax  will  destroy  power  of,  28. 
Twitchell,  Eliza  S.,  quoted,  9,  51,  68. 

Ullman,  Mr.  V.,  quoted,  101. 
"Unearned"  vs.   "earned"  incomes,  32. 
U.  S.  Public  Health  Bulletin,  25,  61. 
Urban  land,  monopoly  of,  26,  27. 
U'Ren,  W.  S.,  quoted,  15,  50,  85,  86. 
Uruguay,  Single  Tax  progress  in,  116. 

Vancouver,  14. 

Vaughn,  Dr.  Victor  C.,   quoted,  64. 
Verinder,  Frederick,  quoted,  18. 
Vice,  primary  cause  of,  62. 
Vogt,  Prof.  Paul  L.,   quoted,  81. 

Wages,  definition  of,  34. 
Wagner,   Prof.  Adolph,  quoted,   101. 
Walker,  Prof.,  quoted,  5. 
"Wallace's  Farm"-"  quoted,  91. 
Wallis,  Prof.  Louis,  quoted,  105. 
Walsh,  D.  L,  quoted,   80. 
Walsh,  Frank  P.,  quoted,  39. 
War,  how  to  abolish,  98. 
Ward,   Dr.  H.  H.,  quoted,  56. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  Single  Tax  illustrated  in,  72. 
Waterfronts,  27,  28. 
Waterpower  land,  monopoly  of,  25. 
Watson,  Prof.  Frank  D.,  quoted,  5. 
Wealth    and    land,    difference    between,    29;    dis- 
tribution of,  33,   34. 
Wedgwood,  Josiah  C.,  quoted,  48. 
Weller,  Arthur  H.,  quoted,  11,  42,  43,  69. 
White,  J.  D.,  quoted,  60,  101. 
White,  John  Z.,  quoted,  9,  11. 
Whitlock,  Brand,  quoted,  6,  7. 
Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler,  quoted,  103. 
Willard,  Frances  E.,  quoted,  53. 
Williams,  Bishop  Charles  D.,  quoted,  103. 
Williams,  Dr.  H.  S.,  quoted,  66. 
Willock,  H.  H.,  quoted,  10. 
Withy,  Arthur,  quoted,  40,  111. 
Witt,  Peter,  quoted,  112. 
Woll,  Matthew,  quoted,  27. 
Wright,   W.   Chapman,  quoted,   18,   38,   59. 

Yucatan,  Mexico,  Single  Tax  progress  in,   116. 


127 


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